Prolong Equilibrium
by Scott-The Swordsman
Summary: One young man, and an adventure that will be remembered for generations. A legendary battle for the fate of the world will begin, and one young man holds the power to change defeat into victory. Will he fulfill his destiny? [Rewrite]
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

**Chapter 1: The Beginning**

"Whew."

I never expected to travel so far in all my life. I walked for days through the hot, sandy deserts I was used to, to end up in a field, with grass and water, and animals and monsters I had never heard of or seen before. It was a long trip, and a hard one… I ran out of water near the end of it, but luckily I had stumbled upon a man who gladly lent me some of his, just to get me this far… To a place they called Prontera Fields. I was there on a whim, you could say. I had nowhere else to go, so I figured it would have been a good idea… But first, I should tell you what I was like at that time.

My name is Linkin. It's not my real name. I know this because that's my full name, just "Linkin." I never really thought about why I just had one name, and I was happy that way. I was seventeen years old by the time I left my hometown of Morroc and wandered into the grassy lands of Prontera. I had blue hair that I tried my best to keep neat, and it wasn't too long coming to just around the bottom of my nape in the back, and my bangs weren't even long enough to reach my eyes – which were green by the way. I had slightly tanned skin from living in the desert so long. Everyone there had tan skin because of the hot sun. I had left my hometown because… Well there was nothing left for me, and I wanted to see the world. I had become part of the Thieves' Guild after some particular circumstances, and that profession was what brought me to where I was.

I remembered well how becoming a Thief was difficult. The Guild HQ was almost impossible to find, and it took my several days to find it. Luckily, it only took me one day to fulfill their tasks, to prove that I could become a Thief. There were Guilds for all kinds of different jobs and professions, and each one tested you on your skills in that field by telling you to do one thing or another, and bring back proof of your accomplishment. Sometimes these guilds would send you all over Rune-Midgarts, but thankfully they had only sent me into town, to steal some things from a nobleman – in broad daylight. But despite being wracked with worry and cold sweat, I managed to take a few pieces of valuable pottery and return to the Guild, which was situated an hour's walk north-east of the town. I barely passed with a return like that, all worn out, sunburnt, and with a few "useless pots," but they welcomed me into the Thieves' Guild anyways. It was then that they told me to keep an eye out for a kid about my age. Apparently this kid was really something special, and people would pay good money to know where he was.

That was why I was in the Prontera Region. I wanted to see if I could find this kid. But at the same time, I wanted some adventure! I wanted to get out and see all that I could, and the Prontera Region was a big step. Morroc was located in a place called the Sogart Desert. It was always hot there, it hardly ever rained, and there was no grass. There was nothing but sand and sun, and the occasional tree or oasis. In the Prontera Region though, the ground was covered in grass, and different kinds of trees I had never seen before. The trees were shaped like cones, and covered in small needles. Rune-Midgarts, the continent in which all these places lay, was a large area. It was very diverse, from what I had heard, containing grassy plains, sandy deserts, and all the plateaus in between. I knew I had a lot to see, but I was young and I had a good feeling that I would be seeing most of it in due time.

I had stopped to take a rest beneath one of these trees, and ask directions to the nearest city. A friendly Merchant stopped to help me. I learned there were two cities near the region I was in. There was one city called Prontera, and the other was called Izlude. I knew that Prontera was the Capital City of Rune-Midgarts, home of King Tristin III and the Knights and Crusaders of Rune-Midgarts, so naturally I wanted to see it first. It was under an hour north of where I was at the time, so I quickly made haste to make it into the city before the sun went down.

Walking through the grassy area, I looked at everything I could. Everything seemed so different! Even the animals were different… Where as the Desert had dangerous monsters, like Desert Wolves and ants the size of a baby Desert Wolf, the Prontera Fields had big insects about the size of my fist that flew with wings, and even bigger ones that crawled along the ground at slow speeds. It also had white-furred animals, with long ears… My boots at the time were lined with the same fur they had, along the soles, to make my movement silent. I distracted myself, following the animals around the fields… I got down on the ground next to one of the large, green bugs that crawled along the ground, and slid next to it on my stomach. The brown sweater I was wearing beneath my tan coloured jacket got a little stained, but I wasn't afraid to get dirty. I would have washed it out eventually. The bug looked at me, and counting, it had about six eyes. I gazed curiously at it, while its gaze seemed a little frightened. It turned and attempted to crawl away, but I crawled right after it, at the same speed, just to bug it. The knees of my dark brown pants probably got a little dirty… My pants were a little baggy, and didn't even cover all of my legs. I had to where long socks to protect my shins.

Soon the bug slowly crawled up the side of a tree. I stood up and watched it climb. Nothing in the Desert could do _that_. It soon disappeared into the branches above, and I turned to head once more towards the Capital City, Prontera. Though in doing this, I bumped into someone, and lost my balance, falling back against the tree. I kept on my feet though, barely, almost having them slide out from beneath me. I looked up quickly; to see that the person I had bumped into hadn't been knocked over… In fact, he looked pretty big. I was a thin person by nature, but this guy seemed to be very fit, judging by the size of him. Standing up, he looked to be at least a couple of inches taller than I was.

"Watch where you're going, will ya?" He said to me, crossing his arms in an unfriendly manner. Had I been able to see his eyes, I could have read his expression better. But, he was wearing a pair of tinted glasses. The glass lenses were tinted purple, as to protect his eyes from the sun. But the surface was entirely reflective, showing only my own face looking up at the guy. His mouth, too, was covered. He wore a muffler over his shoulders, and the neck of it was brought up and sealed, almost like a turtleneck, hiding his mouth.

"Well sorry." I muttered back at him. I had to wonder what he was doing so close to me in the first place.

"You don't look like you're from around here," He said, after taking a look over me. "You from the Desert?"

"Yeah." I answered him truthfully. Taking a look at him, his outfit looked kind of scruffy. He was covered head to toe, barely any skin showing except for his forehead and ears. He had a long-sleeve dark brown shirt on, and a pair of matching dark brown gloves… Over his chest was a narrow piece of cloth, probably around his neck had I been able to see it. It was tucked into a black leather belt, and seemed to continue down in between his legs like a sort of loincloth. He wore dark brown pants similar to his shirt, and his boots came up to cover his chins with protective padding. His gloves, too, seemed to have the same padding to protect his forearms. Though on his back, he carried a large sword… It was strapped across his chest, and looked too big to wield with one hand.

"Yeah? What brings you around here?" He asked again, rubbing his chin as he questioned me.

"Nothing really." I didn't think I had to explain myself.

"Yeah right." He responded sarcastically. "Then you must be an idiot, walking all the way through there for no reason at all."

"Well why should I have to tell you?" I asked, a little irked myself now. "I don't even know who you are."

"My name's Iciris." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Alright…" I looked at Iciris in a rather awkward manner, but proceeded to introduce myself. "I'm Linkin… I'm just here because…"

"Hold that thought." The guy soon cut me off, raising a hand to hush me. His attention seemed to be diverted from me, and he son just up and walked away! Of course I was offended. Who wouldn't be? It was pretty rude to start a conversation with someone and just walk away.

I watched him then. I wasn't sure where he was going until I took a look ahead of him. Following him, I saw that he was following someone else. Now, I didn't know who they were… But damn, they were something. It was a woman; I don't know how old, but they had to be young. From behind, she seemed to have long red hair, with a bow in the back. Her hair ran down her back, hiding most of her body, until it reached her rear. She had a golden ring around her waist, which served as a waistband of sorts for a piece of red silk that rested behind her. Long, purple, pieces of silk, like unwrapped ribbon flowed out behind her as she walked with each little sway of her hips… She definitely did seem to act fairly sensual. From what I could see, she wore white silk pants of sorts, and at leas something without sleeves, as her arms were bare of any clothing except for two golden hoop bracelets on either wrist, and another two golden rings binding her biceps lightly. She definitely did seem to travel lightly, only wearing a pair of sandals on her dainty feet. I was getting interested as I watched Iciris walk up to her, and attempt to stop her.

"Hey there, beautiful." He said, in a tone of voice that seemed to be over-doing the suave tone. The woman didn't seem to respond, and simply gave him the cold shoulder as she kept walking.

"What brings a beautiful woman like you all the way out here?" Iciris asked, trying to grab her attention again. Once more, she ignored him.

"I know," He said, quickly stepped in front of her, forcing her to stop. "You came to rest! Well that's too bad, cause' you'll be running through my mind all day."

"Listen you creep," She suddenly spoke, her voice sounding mature and stern, seeming to startle Iciris. "I didn't come here to get hit on by some welfare-looking little punk like you."

Little? He was as tall as she was.

"Welfare!" Iciris took a quick defensive. "I do not look welfare!"

"Do too." She responded. "Look at those clothes, it looks like you haven't washed them for weeks!"

It was true. They did look pretty dirty.

"Well, that's… Uh well you see…" Iciris had noticed he was backed into a corner, and suddenly became rather uncertain. I tied to hold back my laughter as I hid myself behind a tree, watching them as they spoke.

"It's poor is what it is." The woman said quickly, poking him in the chest. He looked down when she did, and she quickly brought her finger up to flick him in the nose, almost knocking off his shaded glasses, if he hadn't caught them quickly. The woman simply brushed past him them, leaving him behind to watch her as she sauntered away.

"You… You bitch!" Iciris shouted. "I'll show you! You'll be _begging_ for me in due time!"

Iciris's had turned in my direction, and he must have seen me. I quickly looked away, whistling to myself as I attempted to play innocent. If he asked, I would have said I didn't see any of that, or just played stupid. Already my visit to the Prontera Region was getting interesting. I never though I would meet a guy who would seem so cocky and obnoxious at first, and then go and get shot down by a woman. It seemed my attempt to play stupid didn't work, and he started heading back towards me. I got a nervous feeling, so I attempted to walk away but…

"Hey!"

He stopped me with a shout, and I turned back towards him. I quickly found his hand on my shoulder, it was heavy, and it felt like he had a strong grip to keep me in place, so I didn't dare move. I just looked up at his sunglasses, finding it difficult to offer proper eye contact when I couldn't see his eyes.

"You saw what happened back there." He said rather bluntly. "But every good man has his drawbacks, right?"

"Right." I nodded, looking as seriously as I could.

"You from the Thieves' Guild?" He asked.

"What's it to you?" I gave him another dangerous look. I didn't feel like I had to explain myself to him.

"Well I have a job for you, kid. If you're a real Thief, this should be a piece of cake." He said, seeming to lighten up a little.

I wondered what he had planned. Obviously it had something to do with that woman… What if he was some sort of unstable guy? Maybe he hid his face because he was a fugitive, and he was about to ask me to join him in some crime. Theft…? That would have been simple. But maybe he was about to ask me to help him **rape** her? That was something I wouldn't have done. But Iciris seemed so much stronger than I was, that it didn't seem like I had a choice in the matter.

"What is it?" I asked, gulping nervously.

"Go score me some points with that chick." He said, gesturing over his shoulder at the woman who had just burned him.

"What?" I was rather confused, and looked just as such. "How's that supposed to prove anything?"

"I don't know, steal her wallet while you're there or something!" He shouted, sounding rather agitated. I didn't want to edge him on any further, so I didn't complain.

"Though where you'd find a wallet on an outfit like that…" Iciris commented, gazing back at the woman as she had seated herself by a tree, tucking her legs in beside herself, as she seemed to seat herself almost upon her hip. "… Well I don't know."

Iciris gave an eerie laugh, one that reeked of a shameless tone. I shrugged it off and walked on then, towards the woman. I could tell why the pervert had gotten so absorbed with her. She was very beautiful. Her body was curved nicely, a slender hourglass shape, her "assets" being just the right size to perk arousal in almost any man. Though, her outfit… I had seen several performers at the pub in my hometown dressed in a similar fashion. Men from all over town, normally old drunks, visited every night to see them. I could see them too, working in the pub as a clean-up boy. Call it a bad impression, but the performances those dancers would put on were pretty raunchy. The old men would have a hoot just watching them. It all seemed wrong to me somehow… So I wasn't too impressed with this woman as I approached her. Still, to make up for Iciris's past actions, I simply bit my lip and acted as kind as possible. She didn't even seem to notice me as I stepped towards her. It was then that I noticed a whip coiled at the ready, hanging from her hip. It was a little imposing, but I simply went with the 'grin and bear it' course of action.

"Hey…" I spoke, getting her attention. "Yeah uh, sorry about my friend… The guy that just spoke to you…"

"Oh, it's alright." She responded. I knew it was a lie, just on how her voice seemed to trail distantly. "I get that a lot."

"Well he's a dreamer, don't mind him." I said, smiling sympathetically. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her, with the thought of how much male attention she must have received. "What's your name?"

"My name is Moonlight." She answered. I wondered if maybe that was her real name, or maybe if she were a performer, if it was her stage name. "Nice to meet you… uh…"

"Linkin." I finished for her with a little smile. She smiled back at me.

"Well Linkin, I can't stay and talk," She said, standing back up and brushing off her pant leg. "But you are kind of cute. Tell your friend he's forgiven."

I was a little surprised that she would so openly say I was cute. I was a little taken away by the comment, and beamed with a proud smile. She stood up and kissed my cheek lightly, baffling me as she sauntered away again. I rubbed my cheek, bewildered. It was the first kiss I had ever received from a girl, so naturally I was rather surprised. Though I was broken out of my dazed state when Iciris stormed over to me.

"How the hell'd you do that!" He asked… Or demanded to know… Or something like that.

"I don't know!" I answered, just as surprised as he was.

"You've gotta teach me that sometime." Iciris said, giving me a pat on the shoulder. I looked at him, my reflection being a tint of orange in the light of the sunset.

The sunset! I almost forgot what I had been doing! I excused myself from his presence and quickly made my way north again. It wasn't the time for little distractions; I had wanted to get to Prontera. Not only did I want to see it, but also it was getting late and I needed a place to sleep! So I hurried, making it to the city gates by nightfall. Though it was strange… Walls that must have been a few stories high surrounded the city, and there was a large wooden door standing in my way. But I couldn't see a way inside. I stood for some time just gazing along the wall. It was a sturdy, fortified stonewall with guards stationed to watch. It took me a while before it finally hit me - at night they closed the gates! I was kind of ticked at that, as anyone would be. It was then that I heard Iciris speak up from behind me again.

"You're not gonna get in like that." He said in a knowing manner.

"What the hell?" I asked practically no one. I turned to him then, raising my arms just to let them fall to my sides again. "You distracted me!"

"Me?" Iciris seemed to be a little offended.

"Yeah you!" I responded. "If I wasn't wasting my time with that woman…"

"Hey, you can never waste time with a woman." Iciris interrupted.

"Yes you can!" I cried.

"Hey, don't get your panties in a knot." Iciris said, calmly, raising his hands in a kind of surrendering gesture. "Prontera's not that great anyways… I've been there. Listen, I was headed to it's 'sister-city,' Izlude. It's open all day and all night, and right on the coast to the east. Why don't you go there?"

I'd never heard much of Izlude. All I knew was what the Merchants back in Morroc knew. Izlude was a port town, one that made trade with other cities along the coasts. I never knew what the other cities were, but Izlude didn't get any goods that the other cities didn't get, apparently. I never was interested in trading. It wasn't like I had a lot of money, so buying and selling never was a major part of my life.

This strange young man had a point though; there was no reason why I couldn't go to that Izlude place. So I had him point me in the direction of the city and left for it. Unfortunately, he had to follow me. In the short time I had met him, I didn't seem to like him all too much. His attitude wasn't exactly the most… _magnetic_. Still, he seemed to know what he was talking about half of the time. If I asked about a creature or place or whatever else, he seemed to be able to explain it to me in a pretty basic way. He was definitely no intellectual. I could question a lot of what he was saying, and he wouldn't have the answers. But the more I questioned him, the more irritated he seemed to get. So I figured the easiest way to get along with him would be to speak to him as little as possible.

Once more it took somewhere under an hour to walk across he fields to Izlude. We reached an arch that seemed to make a "doorframe" for a bridge. This was the town gate. There was only one guard stationed out front in a small post, so I assumed it wasn't a large town. I could also smell salt in the air. Even a guy from the desert knew that the smell was the sea. Apparently Iciris wasn't lying when he said it was a town on the coast. It was a quiet town, not all too big. It was on a hunk of land separate from the mainland, only by a little bit, only to the point where I had to cross two bridges to get to the town itself. The town seemed to focus to a point at the middle of the island, the buildings and various other junctions circling around that point. I had no time to look around, so I asked Iciris to show me to an inn. I tried not to be too peeved at the guy as he simply pointed out a tavern for me to stay at, and then lead me there. It was a small building, and the business there almost reminded me of the pub in my own hometown. Once more I saw that woman Iciris and I had met.

She was dancing upon a stage. I should have known. She was so scantily clad; I could only assume that she was a Dancer. Her dancing was no less than the others I had seen in Morroc. It was provocative, seducing, and deliberate in order to rouse the men and put most women to shame. I found it pretty sad. How someone could simply hop up on a stage and degrade themselves like that was completely beyond me. I definitely hadn't planned to stick around and watch. Even though Moonlight was moving so beautifully, I didn't want to bother myself being caught up in it all. So I simply went to the bar, to talk to the bartender who could have set me up with a room. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, Iciris was already arguing with the man. I would only get more peeved at him as he yelled. Apparently, he couldn't get a room, and had to be dragged out. The bartender took one look at me and told me to beat it right after, so naturally I did.

So at that point I was without a place to sleep. It wasn't like I could have camped out, as I didn't have any of the right equipment. I knew I'd have to resort to what I did in the desert. I would find an abandoned scorpion burrow or something (because the scorpions were as big as dogs) and spend a night in there. But as I saw it then, I would have had to find another place, something a little different than a hole dug into the sand. And I did. After a short while, I decided to sleep at one of the empty stalls at the center of the town. They were set up in a circle, made of wood and draped with tarps. It looked good enough, so I hopped behind one and crouched down. Slowly lying onto my back, I scooted beneath the L-shape of the stall. My knees were slightly bent, but I was able to lay my back flat out. I lay there, staring at the wood above my face.

It wasn't the best first visit to the Prontera Region. I was hassled by an idiot, missed my chance to get into a town I would have had a chance to actually get a decent place to sleep in, and I was sleeping outside in the cold. I'd had worse though. I was definitely hoping that things would begin to go better. I figured I would find that kid, get the money for it, and then things would just start working. I had to get myself on my feet first, though, which I planned to do just after I got some sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: The Missing Child

**Chapter 2: The Missing Child**

Nudge… nudge… nudge…

Someone was nudging me…

Nudge… nudge… nudge…

… They wouldn't stop.

Tap, tap, tap.

They started tapping me repeatedly.

Thump!

Someone kicking me in the side harshly woke me up. I jerked to look up at them. It was a little girl, and she started yelling at me, to get out of her booth. It didn't take me long to realize that she was the person who sold stuff at the stand I had slept under the night before. With a yawn I crawled out from beneath the booth and walked around it as quickly as I could. I was lucky that girl hadn't called the guards on me, and had me thrown out of the town. Still, it didn't seem like my visit was getting any better.

I was surprised at how the town had changed! The sun had just risen, and the air wasn't completely warm at that point, and the town was already filled with murmurs of conversation. People walked the streets freely, and the occasional guard was walking the streets to keep order. But, over-all, it seemed like an orderly town. The smell of salt was light in the air, reminding me of the dockside location of the city. I went to look around, not that there was much to see. There were a few shops, and the tavern, and the stalls set up around the city, which weren't very exciting. But there were two areas that I did find interesting. The marina was one. Being from the desert, I was never able to see a ship before. Their ships weren't amazing by any means, but to me, they were amazing! The other area of interest was the Swordsman's Guild of Rune-Midgarts.

The Swordsman's Guild was a rather small place. The Building didn't cover much, but I didn't see any need to go inside. So I simply stood outside, reading the signs and the propaganda that were posted all around it. Some of the townspeople, too, were talking about it. Apparently, all the apprentices to Knighthood or being a Crusader were required to sign up to that Guild, to learn the necessary basic skills of swordplay. I couldn't see where they trained, though. It was such a small junction, split from the west side of Izlude that there didn't seem to be any room for the _hundreds_ of Swordsmen and Swordswomen that apparently trained there daily.

It was a nice place over all. But it was really different! But as much as I wanted to stay and learn the local customs, I had to get to Prontera. I didn't have to set up to leave, so I left immediately. Unfortunately, when I went to leave, I ran into a familiar face. Well, by 'familiar face,' I more mean 'familiar get-up.'

"Hey." Iciris stopped me as I tried to just brush past without a word. The guy was real arrogant. _Maybe_ I didn't _want_ to talk. But I suppose he never thought about that.

"Hey." I responded in spite of myself.

"Leaving so soon? You just got into town, man!" He said, stepping over to me and smacking me on the shoulder. "We didn't even get the chance to hit up a bar!"

"Does the word 'minor' mean anything to you?" A rhetorical question, but I asked never the less. "We're not old enough to 'hit up a bar!'"

"I will be in a couple of days." Iciris responded flatly. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"I'm busy." I answered, brushing him off and heading on towards the gate.

"Hold on!" He ran to catch up and stopped me by grabbing my shoulder. "Where're you going?"

"None of your business!" I pushed his hand away roughly.

"Man, quit being an ass." He said sternly.

_ME? **I'm**_ being an ass?

"I doubt you're doing anything important." He went on. "I mean you're a Thief. All you guys do is steal crap… I guess it's kind of important, but it's against the law, right? And it's not like I'm gonna go and rat you out or anything, so what's the big deal? Quit being so secretive and let loose a little, tight-ass."

"Oh just fuck off." I told him off, and my use of foul language seemed to startle him a little. I don't think either of us expected me to be so angry about it. "I'm going to look for a kid, alright?"

"Ohh!" Iciris simply nodded. He paused to think for a moment before he put in his two cents – not that I was looking forward to it. "**That** kid. I know who you're talking about. There's a whole bunch of guys and chicks looking for **that** kid. Some people say that he uh… fetches a little bit of zeny for a blab on where he's at. I wouldn't mind finding him myself."

"Well I need the money." I admitted. "So stay out of the way."

I got to the gate before Iciris lurked up behind me and said, "Hmm, if we split the cash, I'll tell you something I heard about the kid."

That got me interested. Maybe I could find a use for the guy yet.

"Oh yeah?" I turned to look at him. Had I been able to see his face properly, I would have sworn he was grinning like an idiot.

"Yeah," Iciris responded. "I heard a rumor, and it could be fake, but I heard the kid was in a place called… Payon."

"Payon?" The tone of voice he used made me a little suspicious. It sounded like he was just pulling the facts out of his ass. "Sounds like some kind of food… Where's that?"

"Payon's a village in the forests to the east." Iciris answered, holding up a piece of rolled paper that he had been holding. I hadn't noticed it before, but then again, I was working to not notice the creepy pervert all together. He rolled out the paper, and held it on either end, showing me what appeared to be a map of Rune-Midgarts. He pointed to an area with one hand, making the side it was holding roll half way back.

"That's where we are," He explained. "Izlude, the port city, Sister City to the Capital, which is located… here." He moved his hand to unroll the map a little more, pointing dead center to a large city. "Payon is over here." He dragged his finger along the map to the right side (his left) of it, to a large green area near the coast. "See? It's just a little southeast of Izlude. A little further beyond that is Alberta, which is right on the shore right there." He moved his finger a little down-right from Payon to another small city right on the shore of the east coast. I knew that was Alberta, since he mentioned it was a port city that shipped things to other continents. "So the quickest way to Payon would be a day and a half to two day trip south until we hit the desert, then a little east. We'd run right into it, and catch that kid. And if they'll pay to know where he is… Imagine how much they'd pay if you got the little bastard!"

He had me there. I guess if there was one thing he'd use his logic for, it would be for personal gain. The unfortunate part of the plan was the part where I would have to go with him. I didn't particularly like him; in fact, I wanted to get as far away from him as possible before he dragged me off to impress some girl again. If that was a mere few minutes of my life, I couldn't imagine spending possibly days at a time with the guy. But I did like money! So, to get that money, I decided to join him. He wouldn't show me the way if I hadn't.

… That was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

Traveling with that guy was torture! Sure he could hold his own, and knew a bit about all the things I had to ask about, but it was the small things that eventually got on my nerves. It took the entire day by foot to get even close to the desert. We stepped foot on the sand of the desert long after nightfall, but could have been there by sunset! The reason? Iciris. Whenever we would stop to rest, he would go on and on about himself, and his dreams, and his goals. This was easy enough to handle, but just like when I first met him, girls would easily distract him. Often he'd completely forget what he was _supposed_ to be doing, and where we were _supposed_ to be going, and go chase after some girl! I'd tag along behind him, trying to remind him what we were supposed to be doing, but he wouldn't listen. He was just so arrogant and self-absorbed that what I wanted didn't seem to matter. This girl hounding would go constantly throughout the day - even if they had boyfriends – and as a result, we got to the desert much, much later than we should have, and had to turn in for the night further back than I had hoped.

The next day, it didn't go any better.

"Seems pretty… dry." Iciris said, raising his hands to hold them behind his head as his reflected gaze was cast along the creamy-white sands of the desert, splashed a light brown by the sun's rays.

"Well gee, I wonder why." I responded. I was pretty unimpressed. For a guy who knew so much about Prontera, he didn't seem to give a damn about the desert. _Obviously_ it was dry because of the sun! But I suppose in his ignorance, he never considered it…

"Well you don't have to sound so harsh about it!" He shouted back at me as I went on. He quickly moved to follow me, obviously not used to trudging through the sand. There were a few times he would slip on a dune, losing his footing, or almost stepping on a scorpion burrowed in the sand, angering it. I guess I couldn't blame him though. As far as I knew, he'd never been in the desert.

"How the hell did you manage to live here?" He asked, unfortunately. In his own stumbling he was being rather quiet – which was the time in his company I really enjoyed. For once, though, I thought he was asking a decent question. Even I had to admit that the conditions in the Sogart Desert were hard.

"Well it's not like I lived out here." I answered, still walking. "I mean, for a few days I did, when I was going to Prontera. I lived I a town to the north, over the mountains. It's called Morroc. It's pretty poor living there, but I guess it was alright."

"So… What were you some sort of welf?" Iciris asked, tilting his head forwards inquisitively.

"Welf?" I threw a backhand at him, that he quickly stepped back away from as I slung around to look at him. "Yeah, maybe I was! Is that some sort of problem to you, huh?"

After a moment's pause, he subtly raised his hands in defeat, saying, "Wow, alright… Don't have to get all ticked off about it."

"Let's keep going." I said as I turned and kept going. He stopped me though after some convincing, and turning to him, about to knock his block off, he said:

"You're going the wrong way."

I think I blew a gasket so I couldn't get any angrier with him. Reluctantly I had to let him lead the way, because facing the facts, he had the map. Even if he didn't know any two things about the desert, he knew what direction to go in at least. By sundown, we had arrived outside the desert again, at a dry edge of a forest. Most of the grass in that area had withered and died, and the trees blew within dry breezes. The leaves were mostly a brownish red colour, dying due to the lack of water they needed. I had managed to cool off by then, and once more Iciris and I were forced to sleep on the cold, hard ground. But, it would have taken another two days to walk through the forests near Payon according to Iciris. But the forests were once again different; unlike anything I'd ever seen!

Well alright, I have to admit… If you've seen one blade of grass, you've seen them all. But it was the trees and the animals I was more focusing on. The trees were what people called "deciduous." I didn't know what that meant, but unlike the needles of an evergreen tree, and the cone-shape, it was a sort of leafy tree. Every leaf was like a green teardrop in shape almost, except very pointy at the tip. And they all hung on branches that stretched out in such a manner, that it made the treetops look like circles, spheres of bundled leaves. It was definitely a sight to see. There weren't too many animals to see, all except things called "Porings," things called "Drops," and things called "Poporings."

Porings, Drops, and Poporings all belonged to the same family in terms of the animal kingdom. They lacked anything that could be seen as bones or organs… In fact, they were little balls of jelly. They were made of clear, squishy liquid, and seen all over the place. They all had the same beady little black eyes, and tiny mouths they used for eating foods that they would simply absorb into their see-through bodies. The only way to tell the difference between them was their colour. Porings were a pink colour, looking like cherry jelly, Drops were a bright orange, almost transparent colour, and Poporings were a light green, hardly see-through at all. All had their own special properties, but one thing they all held in common was how utterly cute they appeared. They were harmless animals unless provoked, and simply went on their merry little ways, collection apples or items that fell onto the ground to eat, getting whatever nourishment they could. The only reason I knew so much about them was the fact that Drops were known to live in the desert.

Usually young girls wanted to tame them as pets. I on the other hand used to hunt them, sadly, for an excretion they made called a "Jellopy."

Jellopies were pretty much waste. At least, to the Porings they were. It was a hard substance that glittered in the light, almost looking like crystal. Because of this, it was used for a lot of things. Whether it was for melding with other things to make a new, hard material, or just finely cut and passed off as a phony diamond, I always found someone to sell them to. It was how I managed to live in Morroc with such poor living conditions. But I never told Iciris that. Something that complicated almost seemed wasted on him.

If you're reading this and you don't live in Rune-Midgarts already, you're probably wondering how in a few days I could manage to walk to a grassy field, though a desert, and to thick forest. Well, I had only walked through what could be called the corner of the desert. The Sogart Desert stretched out for miles and miles, just like the Prontera Fields, and the Payon Forests. But being only separated by miles at a time, it's really confusing to me how the desert would be so dry and dead and full of strange animals, while if you were standing just between the Sogart Desert and the Prontera Fields, and took a step, you'd be standing in lush, grassy fields. I didn't know why that was myself at the time, but I made certain to ask someone later on.

It took almost three days to walk through the forests to the Payon Village. Iciris was off – which I should have seen coming. We reached the village only a few hours after waking up on the third day. My coat was dirty, my face had smears on it, and my hair was all messed up because Iciris and I didn't have a tent, or anything to sleep in. When him and I got to the village, we looked like crap, if you want to put it simply. His ragged clothes looked even worse than before, and he was often sweating because he refused to take any of his heavy clothing, or even his muffler that covered the lower portion of his face. I just thought it was a stupid thing to do. I often found myself taking off my jacket, or sometimes even my sweater as I trekked on. Needless to say, I think we were both happy to find a place we could rest for a while, and clean up.

"Next time, bring a damn tent or something." Iciris grumbled as we stepped to the gates.

"Next time?" I responded. "You think there's gonna be a next time?"

"Welcome to New Payon." We heard a voice that made both of us look straight ahead, where we saw a man standing before us. "Wow, you two look terrible."

The man reached up one of his gloved hands, the fingers cut out of the gloves, and wedged his fingers beneath his half-helm to rub his short black hair. He looked to be a very thin guy wearing a helm of shining bronze that only covered his head, with a small spike sitting at the very top of it, with a red feather dangling off it. He wore a turquoise tunic with long sleeves, and a small robe drawn around his waist. Other than that, he wore loose-fitting dark brown pants, and very little protection, such as bronze elbow-covers, and brown leather boots reinforced with some bronze plating at the toe. He carried a pike with him, with another red piece of cloth tied under the blade, dangling off. His skin was a fair white, and his eyes were brown, and he eyed Iciris and I curiously.

"Walk all the way here, huh?" The man asked. "Well, you'll find a few good places to rest, don't you worry! My name's Harris, I'm one of the town guards, as you can see."

He wiggled his pike as a sort of emphasis. He really did seem like an eccentric guy.

"What are you two looking for?" Harris the guard, asked with a curious expression, leaning against his pike, which was just a little taller than he was.

"Well we…"

"We came just to take a look around!" Iciris cut me off! And he kept going, too. "We've never been here before. So my pal and I decided we'd come and take in the sights. And man, what sights! Pretty cool-looking guards, ain't that right, Linkin?"

"Uh… Yeah." I nodded reluctantly, rather confused as to why Iciris would just take off with the conversation like that. The guy was just so… I don't know how to explain it! I had to force a smile.

"You really think so, huh?" Harris chuckled a little, propping himself back to stand up straight, turning away and looking over his shoulder. "C'mon, I'll show you two to the inn. You can get yourselves all cleaned up and take a rest while you're there."

So we followed him. Iciris seemed to ignore my constant questioning about what he had done before, lying to the man. Instead we followed Harris to the inn silently. I was amazed! Payon seemed like such a cultural place! I always knew Morroc to be poor, without access to water, no wells, no way of transporting the water, and the quality of most of the buildings was fairly poor. Payon, while looking very old-fashioned and rural, seemed to work perfectly, as if in their own little world. The buildings had wood supports, and wooden roofs, and wooden walls… Almost everything was made out of wood! Well, considering that they were in the middle of a forest, they probably used the wood cleared out in order to build the damn town! Everything seemed to be made by hand. Nothing was imported, aside from the occasional food item. The small community was bustling with activity. I saw a mill of sorts, powered by nothing, without any sort of wind to run it, or a fan to catch it, and still, it automated a hammer that pounded wheat into flour, able to be left alone and do its job all day.

The inn was small, but cozy. It was lit only by sunlight in the main lobby, and the rooms it branched off to were two beds at most, with a fine wooden dresser and a couple of end tables. Lanterns were in the rooms to keep them lit at night, but kept well away from the wooden supports, actually supported on light squares of clay, perched onto the wall. Iciris and I got at home, but only for a little bit before Iciris said he'd buy us some traveling supplies by selling the things we gathered and skinned from the animals we killed along the way, and wash our clothes, as long as I didn't mind hanging around in my underwear for a bit. I said I didn't mind too much, and took off my jacket, my sweater and my pants. Leaving my boots, and the small sheathe for a dagger I armed myself with that I kept hidden under my jacket, I gave him my clothes and let him go. Naturally he wouldn't leave without throwing in a comment about how skinny I was, so I was glad he left, allowing me to lay back on one of the beds. It felt so good I fell asleep rather quickly.

When I awoke, the sun was setting. The sunbeams that fell through the window in our room bathed the room in an orange glow. My clothes were folded up at the foot of my bed. A new pair of brown leather gloves was set with them, as well as a new pair of underwear. Looking over to the bed next to me, I saw that Iciris was asleep. He was still, so I wasn't sure if he was sleeping lightly, or if he was out. He still wore his tinted glasses even in his sleep! Setting my curiosity aside, I quietly got out of bed and put my clean clothes on. I figured I could take an hour to ask around town about this kid I had to find before I had to find some way to occupy myself. Feeling refreshed, but still dirty, I set out from the inn. All I had to remember was to be back before curfew.

I asked some of the villagers if they'd heard of a boy that people were looking for. Some were obviously uncomfortable when I asked them this. After all, I was a stranger in town. I had to be sure to make myself seem as harmless as possible. I wasn't really harmful anyways, but my behavior could have still raised some suspicion. When I asked other outsiders, some responded the way I wanted them to. They said they had heard of the boy, but nobody heard about him ever being in that area. In fact, some said that they heard the boy was nowhere near Payon! This led me to question Iciris's credibility. Clearly it wasn't very high. I would have let him have it the day after if I hadn't run into a woman in a red dress and a white apron that gave me a fairly good answer.

"The boy whose supposed to be a legendary demon hunter?" She asked. "Well if he has been here, I know exactly where he would have gone!"

"Uh, yeah… I guess that's the guy." I answered.

She led me away from the village, off to the northeast. I followed her along the path until we hit what she called "Archer Village." It was apparently a small section of the village where the local Archers would train. It was pretty obvious that they held quite a few trainees. Littered about were targets, with a large black circle, a smaller blue circle within that, a smaller yellow circle within that, and a little red dot in the middle. Targets, obviously. Most of them had arrows littered throughout them, or holes. Some trees even had arrows in them, probably from unfortunate misses. Most importantly to me, though, there was a small rise in elevation running along the west side of this area. Not so much a mountain as an impressive hill, it was all rock, with vines grown over its surface. The woman led me to a cave burrowed within the rock. Stopping, she turned to me.

"Here's the place." She said quietly. There were several adventurers it seemed, scattered over the ground outside the cave, huddled around small fires. It was almost as if she didn't want them to hear. "I've been hearing strange things about this cave. People from all over have gone inside and never come out. You know why? The undead."

"Hold on there," I raised a hand to stop her. "Undead? Like zombies and ghosts?"

"Yes, yes!" She nodded, lowering my hand. "Corpses and skeletons that have risen from the dead! Nobody's supposed to know, but they do. There are monsters lurking in that cave, feasting on the flesh of all the living things that enter inside! Villagers aren't allowed in. I heard that adventurers have been hired to take them out… But everyone who goes in is just turned into a zombie, or worse! So the number just keeps getting bigger and bigger… It's going to be a war I tell you!"

I just couldn't **believe** this.

"I think the boy you're looking for is said to be something special." She continued. "It's said that there's a missing boy who could take out a whole _army_ of monsters all by himself! It's just a rumor though. I don't think anyone like that _really_ exists. If they did, why would there be monsters still? He'd have come and killed them all by now, like the hero he should be."

Well, it wouldn't have hurt to look everywhere I could. Besides, it sounded exciting! I looked around at all the adventurers sitting around the entrance to the cave, deciding that if there weren't any undead things around, there must have been something. So I wanted to see. I might have wanted to find the boy… But if I could find something valuable in the cave… Then that would have been just as good. Reassuring the woman, I agreed to go inside. And since I felt fresh as a daisy, I figured there was no better time than just then. She ran off and got me a torch, having it lit by the time she brought it back to me. I took it with thanks, and then plunged into the darkness.

The torch did well to light the way. I had stepped into a narrow passage, the end being dimly lit. I walked through the passage to come to an opening, which was rather small and split off straight ahead, and to my right. A lone torch hung on the wall, keeping the small opening lit. The flame flickered just fine in the dry air of the cave, the ground being dry dirt. The air was slightly cool, but nothing bone chilling, and it didn't seem so bad. That was until I heard some slight squeaking and moving, as if small rodents were scurrying about. It echoed through the cave, so I didn't get a good chance to hear exactly where it came from. But a glimmer in the light caught my eye. It was on the ceiling, seeming like two little reflections. I thought maybe they were minerals in the rock, so I held my torch up to it.

Nope!

Bats, Familiars as some people liked to call them. There was a gaggle of them hanging upside down from the ceiling. When I held my torch to them, I found that one was looking at me with its beady little eyes. It let out a loud screech that startled me, causing me to drop my torch on the ground. As soon as that happened, all the other bats were awake, and they just started flying everywhere! Covering my eyes with one arm, I blindly waved my other arm in desperation to fend them off. It lasted a few moments, and they even tried biting at me rather than just leaving. But soon enough they gave up and flew outside into the open, leaving me by myself. I scrambled to pick my torch back up before it was put out, and took a deep breath, leaning against the wall. Looking up at the ceiling again, it was pitch black. The torch on the wall didn't light it up, so I had only me to blame. I worked to calm myself, but that was quickly broken… I heard a shriek, clearly from a young girl. It made me jump and nearly drop my torch yet again. I fumbled with it, luckily not burning myself, and held my torch up to listen again. Yet again I heard it, a cry from a female voice. So blindly, I bolted in the direction I had thought I heard the cry coming from.

Whoever this girl was… I wanted to see what was making her scream like that. Maybe I could have even saved her!


	3. Chapter 3: The Little Archer Girl

**Chapter 3: The Little Archer Girl**

"Help!" The voice cried again, and I ran as fast as I could through the darkness, dagger in one hand, torch held high in the other. The female sounded young, maybe younger than I was, and terrified.

Running blindly into a curtain of darkness, I came to an area where the narrow passage of the cave once more opened up in a mouth that entered into an opening. Though something ran into my torchlight, a large object about the size of a person. Reacting quickly, I wasted little time dodging to the side to avoid being run into, and wrapped my arm around the thing. It was a person, I assumed, as my arm wrapped around what seemed to be the shoulders of a human being. I was met with a struggle, the person in my arm beginning to shake her shoulders and try to rip away from me. I spoke up, trying to see how it was, trying to hold the torch over so I could get a good look. But, before I could, the person tore away. Then as quickly as they pulled away, I was struck in the side of the head with a narrow, wooden object. I stumbled aside and hit my head against the cave wall, leaving me spinning.

"Run!" I heard the person scream. It took me a moment to piece together what was going on. I was so confused, and my head was spinning from the couple of blows it received. The figure I had grabbed onto swiftly disappeared from the torchlight just as I shook off the shock.

"Hey!" I called out. "Run from what!"

Soon my question would be answered. I turned suddenly when I heard dragging footsteps along the dirt and rocks. I readied my dagger, and held my torch out before me, using it to light the way as I glanced around. At the very edge of the light, I saw a skull hit the ground rather suddenly, as if it was just thrown there. I'll admit it startled me a bit, and I called out to see who was there. Someone must have clearly been playing some stupid practical joke. After a few moments of no response, I cautiously stepped towards the skull. As soon as I took my first step though, I saw a pair of bone-white; gnarled, scrawny hands take the skull at either end and drag it back into the darkness. I froze. Tightening the grip on my dagger, I spoke again.

"Who's that?" I asked sternly, trying not to sound shaken. "Who's there?"

Suddenly, something leapt out at me from right in front of me! I must have gone pale from fright, but swung blindly at it with the larger object in my hands. The torch struck the beast, and sent it into pieces on the floor. I recoiled quickly and was ready to swing again when I paused. On the ground before me was a pile of bones. A whole human skeleton of bones lay lifeless on the ground before me. The bones were still fairly white, and only had some rot on them… But they smelled disgusting. The only unique thing about the skeleton was that it seemed to wear a pair of tattered cloth shorts on its pelvis, and a pair of leather booties that were worn and littered with holes on its feet. Other than that, there wasn't a sign of life around me. Slowly I stepped back from the pile of bones, looking around in utter confusion, not knowing what to expect next.

It was then that I decided to leave. Maybe, I thought, I could have gone back in the morning with Iciris, just to make sure I was safe. So, I turned to leave. But yet again as I turned, I was met with a frightening sight! This was unmistakable; I saw it clear as day. A man stood before me, or well, what was left of a man. Vile, disgusting, oozing, rotting flesh covered his form. An open wound rest on his head, a clear hole bludgeoned into the skull amidst old, dying, and scraggly hair. One of its eyes was a pure milky white, the other hanging out by the deep red muscle that held it within, rather vulgarly. It stood with a hunched posture, and a slacked jaw, breathing heavily as open wounds in the chest oozed with a moisture that was so rancid, so potent that it made my eyes water. I felt sick to my stomach as the creature stood half-naked, wearing pants that were tattered, torn, and bloodstained. This creature was clearly the leftover of a man that had died! It was a zombie!

There was a silence as I just stared in horror at the undead creature, the skin it had left being a gray in some places, purple in others, or rotten brown where it hung weakly, liable to fall off at any second. After that moment, it let out a shriek that chilled me to the core, bone-fragments sputtering out of its wide-stretched mouth, the exposed, decaying vocal cords shaking violently as it screeched. I was too spooked to simply attack it as it lunged at me, so I dodged to the side as the zombie missed and lost balance, falling to the floor. I quickly shifted around behind it, the back looking no better than the front, and struck it in the back of the head with the torch as it stood. I let out a loud, agonizing moan as its head set alight with flame, raising its hands to its head to feebly smother the flame. Its hands caught fire, and the flames soon spread to its face and arms. But that didn't stop it. The lifeless creature turned to me slowly, and swiped at me with its hands. I leapt back away from the flames, and tried scaring it off with my torch. It was no use. The thing just kept coming, and armed with only a dagger it was dangerous to think of attacking something that was burning!

It swung at me with heavy arms, moaning and groaning in pain as it stumbled towards me. I swiped my dagger in the air uselessly, trying to scare it off, but it was no good. It had no reaction to anything I did, so I had no choice but to run. I turned in a flash only to find myself at a wall! Whipping back around quickly, it continued to make a steady advance to me. Its horrible aroma filled my nostrils as it neared ever closer. Desperately I clubbed it in the head with my torch, but it didn't phase it.

I backed against the wall as it continued to get closer, reaching out and touching my face with its rotten hands. I closed my eyes tight and turned my head away from its touch, fearing the worse. I heard the sudden noise of something piercing flesh, and it jerked its hands away from me, and soon a loud thud was heard against the ground. I winced, but after a moment began to wonder why it hadn't started eating my face. I opened one eye, then the other, looking straight ahead to see nothing but empty space in the light of the torch I held above my head. Looking left, then right, and then down, I saw it lying on the ground. Sticking out of its head was an arrow that reflected my light, seeming to shine as if it were made out of some metal. The creature wasn't moving. It was dead. Kneeling down, I sheathed my dagger and tugged the arrow out of the creature's head. Upon lifting it, it was light. It wasn't made of iron or steel, it would have been much heavier. Instead, it seemed to be made of pure silver. The end was slightly bent, probably by the force of the impact and the burning fire on the creature's head.

After a few moments, I began to wonder where exactly the arrow came from. I wouldn't have to wait long for an answer.

"I told you to run away!" I heard the female voice say in protest. I looked up quickly to see a girl standing before me. She was dressed rather simply, in a blue tunic with short sleeves that ended around her mid-thigh and spit off into what looked like separate pieces of cloth on either side of her front, which had small rings through them. On her arms, she wore elbow covers made of gold cloth, and had brown leather gloves on her hands. Her tunic had a golden lining along the opening, which started at the collar and angled to the left to run down her side. A singular breastplate rested over her left breast, looking to be made of bronze or some other brown metal, attached to a strap that was over her one shoulder. It must have gone along her back too, because she had hung a quiver of arrows on her back. She wore a large belt on the slight incline of her waist, with a protective plate covering her abdomen. She appeared to have a thin, dark leather protecting her thighs, and dark brown stockings that traveled down her legs into her shin-high leather boots, of which had several buckles and a protective plating at the toe. I couldn't help but notice that her outfit, although light and protective, would have left her slightly exposed if she… Well, that wasn't very important.

"Pardon?" I must have seemed rather dumb. But after having an encounter with the undead, anyone would have!

"That zombie wouldn't have attacked you if you'd listened." She scolded me a moment more, but her blue eyes didn't look too angry. She turned her attention to a bow she held in her hand, looking like a composite bow if I guessed correctly, and said, "Aw, I broke a bowstring doing that."

"Well, sorry…" I apologized. What else could I do?

"It's okay, I'm just glad nobody was hurt." She smiled to me, then knelt down and propped her bow upon the ground. She untied the bowstring from the bow and tossed the snapped string away. "Could you look in the side pouch of my quiver and get me another string? Then, could you hold my bow so it doesn't fall?"

Well, after causing her that much trouble, it was the least I could do. So I moved around behind her and knelt down. Sure enough, on her quiver, there was a side pouch of sorts. I opened it up and reached in to find a tangled mess of string. Pulling it all out, I sorted through the mess until I had freed up one whole piece of string. Putting the rest back in, I closed the pocket and moved back around in front of her. She moved her hand so I could hold the bow up, which I did as I handed over the string. She then went about tying the string on, to replace the other.

"Push down and bend it a little, please." I did as she requested, and it made her job a little easier. Looking at her from a standing position, I could see in the torchlight that her hair was blonde, a little short, about shoulder-length. Even kneeling I could see that she was short, shorter than I was at least. She seemed a little younger too. When she was finished, I let the weight of my one hand off the bow and it pulled back to pull the string she had just finished tying tight. She gave it a test strum with her fingers, and it gave a dense 'boing' sound.

"Thanks." She smiled up to me and stood again.

"No problem…" I responded with some uncertainty. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Here? Oh I'm sorry." She responded. "I came in here to see if the rumors were true – about the skeletons and zombies? – I guess they were."

"I guess so!" I laughed a little, looking to the dead creature lying on the dirty ground. "So, you're alright then?"

"Oh, yes, thank you." She responded politely. "I'm sorry if I startled you. I guess I can forgive you for grabbing me earlier."

"Grabbing you?" I asked, but I remembered back to when I was struck in the face. Looking at the bow, I judged, seeing that it was probably about the same size as the object that smacked me in the face earlier on. I reached up to my cheek and rubbed it a bit. It still stung just a little. She laughed at me as I did this.

"Sorry." I said again. Man, I felt like an ass.

"It's alright." She giggled. "Can I ask what you're doing here?"

"I was just looking for someone." I answered. "But it looks like they're not here. We should really be getting out of here."

The girl agreed, and we turned towards the exit and made our way out. Though upon making our way to the narrow passage I had come from, we stopped dead in our tracks. I felt my breath catch in my chest as we were confronted with what looked like a wall of the living dead. Zombies of all shapes and sizes and in various stages of decay blocked our path, and there didn't seem to be a way around them. The girl didn't seem to see them at first, so I blocked her way with my arm, making her stop. She let out a gasp as they saw them as well. They stared back at us, some having two eyes, some having one, and some having none at all. I gulped in fear and looked to her. She looked at me. Neither of us knew what to do. Soon though, one took a faulty step forwards, limping towards us. One after another they followed until the whole of them were in clutching, desperate movement towards us. The girl and I stepped back. There were far too many to battle.

"Let's go another way…" She whispered, her voice sounding a little shaky.

It seemed like the best option, so we turned and moved along the wall quickly. The walls were jagged stone, easy to feel across if I dragged my fingers lightly across. Moving around the opening, we soon found another narrow passage, and I ducked away quickly, pulling her along by the arm. Once within the narrow passage, I let her go and we quickly made our way down it. We were met with a fork, a passage going straight, and another heading to our right. Straight ahead, I heard more sounds of feet dragging, and bones rattling. I knew it wasn't safe, so I had the girl follow me to the right. My heart was pounding as I ran along with her as quietly as I could. To my horror, we met another few creatures. I exposed them with my torchlight, and they slowly turned their heads towards us. I didn't stay to see what was happening, I turned and hurried back down the passage to the fork. The girl ran and caught up with me when I had stopped. Back the way we had come, the gaggle of creatures were stumbling at a quicker pace, tripping over themselves to find us. To the right, which had been straight before, other creatures sounded as if they were moving towards us, and looking back I saw that even more of the foul-smelling creatures were following us. We were trapped.

"Damn…" I muttered to myself. "We can't get by."

"What are we going to do?" The girl asked, beginning to panic. "We can't fight them all off."

"We'll have to try." I answered, unsheathing my dagger from the inside of my coat. "You going to be alright?"

"I… I um…" Clearly the girl didn't seem too confident.

"Do your best." I said to her quickly. "I'm not about to die in here, are you? Quick! We have to act fast!"

"… Right!" The girl nodded her head once, and reached back to take an arrow from her quiver and ready it at her bow.

"Just hit anything that should be dead." I said, as we stood back-to-back in the center of the three-way split.

I had no choice but to kneel down and stab the torch I carried into the ground. It was our only source of light. It made it difficult to see the creatures from a distance, completely hiding them from sight. But I could hear them moving, dragging their feet along the dirt, and falling every once in a while. I felt the girl's movements behind me. She had drawn back her arrow, pulling back tight. She then suddenly let an arrow fly into the darkness. The sound of the arrow piercing the flesh could be heard mixed in with the moaning and groaning of the undead. Neither of us had any way of knowing if the creature was dead or not. I told her to keep firing off those arrows, naturally. She was more than likely able to hit something even if she couldn't hear it. I on the other hand had to wait. I wasn't about to run into a battle I couldn't see.

Soon I saw a few of them stumble into the light. One of them didn't even have skin! It was a skeleton that had come to live, probably explaining the skull that had startled me before. I didn't have time to think. I struck blindly at the first thing I could. My dagger made contact with flesh, stabbing into the jugular of one of the zombies. Not phased, it raised its arms to try and grab at mine. I quickly tore away to my right, dragging my blade along its flesh, flinging my body to the side. I side-checked another flesh-eater, while swiping across its jaw, cutting it before I knocked it to the floor. I bent at the waist to quickly avoid a pair of hands as they grabbed for me, holding my breath as I drove my shoulder into the guy of one of the zombies, creating a low, gut-wrenching squishing sound before knocking it to the floor as well. Working on instinct, I raised my dagger above my head, blocking an attack from above. I had caught the forearm of a skeleton on my blade, and worked quickly to reach up, rip the arm clear off from the elbow down, and use it to knock the creatures skull from its fragile joints. Tossing the arm to the ground, I had no time to collect, and was forced to continue mindlessly into the fray.

The girl behind me seemed to be doing alright. She was clearly an Archer, more used to long-range weapons than anything else. I had imagined that she was having some difficulty, though, since my torchlight didn't offer a distance enough to be suitable for the use of a bow. More times than not she was beating the creatures off with the shaft of her bow rather than using her arrows. She was unequipped for close-range combat. If that wasn't bad enough, the large numbers of undead were getting to be too much for me. At the rate we were going, we found ourselves fighting a losing battle rather quickly.

I was scared, I'll admit. This stranger and I were backed into a corner, so to speak, and there didn't seem to be any way out of it. The realization hit me rather suddenly, and it caused a strange feeling in my throat. It was the feeling as if you wanted to cry, but you were so chilled with fear that nothing would come out. My emotions were frozen. The only sign of my fright was my heart. It felt like it was about to explode from my chest, since it was beating so fast and so heavily. Hordes of undead had surrounded us, and the chances of us dying were more then likely. Thinking positively in such a situation was impossible.

"Damn it…" I muttered to myself. "It's no use."

From in the darkness, I heard a ruckus. The undead were releasing loud moans of sudden pain, it seemed. I couldn't see what was happening though. The creatures were closing in. The girl next to me was choking back her tears. We'd been backed against a wall. They reached out for us, hands all around, wanting to eat our flesh, or simply just kill us for the sake of it. I have to admit even standing there, trying to seem strong, that I was frightened. It wasn't the first time I was faced with the thought of dying – but in such a way, so far from home?

Suddenly through the torso of one of the zombies, a blade emerged. Rotten flesh and moist blood coated the blade. The zombie slowly looked to his torso, before in a lightning fast movement, the blade was ripped out, and slashed across the creature's abdomen. The heavy blade sliced through the dying flesh and decaying bone like a knife through butter. The zombie fell one piece after another in half on the ground, and lay lifeless, and behind him stood the familiar, tall, large from of Iciris! He didn't stop for a second, both hands on the handle of the large, shining sword he was wielding. He looked left, dragging the tip of his sword along the ground; he raised it with great force, sending the blade upwards to split another fleshy creature of the undead at the seams from the bottom up. The zombie split in half down the middle, and fell to the ground, leaking bodily fluids and organs onto the ground. The momentum of his sword caused him to let go of it with one hand, and it fell behind his back. Using whatever amounts of strength he seemed to have, he lifted the blade to rest along his back, throwing a punch at a skeleton with his free fist, knocking its skull clear off its shoulders. It stood headless, and Iciris let his sword fall to his side, where he grabbed it with both hands and strained to heave the large blade horizontally, cutting clear through not only the skeleton, but three other creatures standing in the way of the attack.

"Don't just stand there!" He shouted, shooting a glance at the girl and I, his blade resting against the ground, as his arms seemed slack in holding it. He was clearly a little tired. It was the first time I had ever been happy to see him. Such a rush of relief we had forgotten our situation. Iciris had snapped me out of it, and I quickly threw a swift slash at the throat of one of the creatures, rolled beneath its arm as it tried to swing at me, and quickly stood to give a second cut into its nape. Its head fell to the floor before its body followed with a tumble.

Snagging the torch from the ground, I called the girl to me. She hurried to me, and I had sheathed my dagger by the time she came to my side, and grabbed her hand. Iciris must have seen this, because he began to clear a path. Cutting down at least one creature with a swing, he broke into a dash through the crowd. I quickly followed; pulling the girl along with me I followed him. Ducking and dodging beneath, around, and over the grabbing hands of the undead, Iciris led us through the horde until we were able to break away. Then, slinging his sword over his shoulder, he dashed towards the exit, leaving me to drag the girl along behind him.

I was so glad to suck in the cool, clean air of the outdoors when we had escaped. Letting go of the girl's hand and dropping the torch to the ground, I braced my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath. The girl lowered to her knees on the ground, bracing her hands on the ground before her as she slouched and tried to rest. Iciris stabbed his sword into the ground, letting it stand erect, and leaned against the handle as he looked at the two of us. Iciris soon kicked dirt onto the torch to put it out, sighing a little. He clearly wasn't impressed with having to come and save me. He turned back to his sword and lifted it out of the ground then.

"Iciris…" I wanted to thank him, whether he was annoyed or not.

"Listen," He cut me off. "If you're going to go out to a place you don't know, you've gotta be ready to take on the risks. If I hadn't come looking for you, you could be dead right now."

"This coming from the guy who traveled almost a week to get here, and didn't have a tent or anything!" I retorted. His bitter scolding wasn't something I wanted to hear – not from him.

"Yeah like I'm the only one who forgot anything." He scoffed. "You're pretty ungrateful, you know that? I just saved your life!"

"Yeah well --!"

"Um, excuse me."

The young girl I was with had spoken up during my argument with Iciris, drawing our attention.

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting or anything…" She began. "But he's right. He did save our lives, so I'm grateful for that."

"Finally someone with some common sense." Iciris sighed as he looked to the girl. "Who are you anyways? I didn't think this guy had any friends."

"Wh-What's that supposed to mean!" I shouted in defiance.

"I'm Rii." The girl continued, ignoring my clear offense to Iciris's comments. "Who are you two?"

"I'm Iciris." Iciris said before I could even open my mouth. "And this guy here is Linkin."

"Shut up for a second!" I raised my vice to Iciris. "I can introduce myself."

"Linkin, thank you." Rii said quietly.

"Huh? Me? What did I do?" I asked, looking down at her. She was still sitting, and she smiled up at me gently.

"You saved me too." She answered. "So thank you. I wouldn't have got out at all if you didn't buy us enough time for Iciris to come. It's because of you I'm alive right now, so thank you."

I had never really stopped to think about what I had done. While I didn't find the boy I was originally looking for, I did manage something. The girl, Rii, was calling out for help, and I answered. I never really thought of how I would look in her or anyone else's eyes if I had done that. It kind of just felt like the right thing to do, as a human being. Hearing her openly be grateful to me though, felt awkwardly good. I suppose everyone needs an ego boost every now and again, but it wasn't just that. I made an impact on someone's life. I wasn't at all used to that, until she said it the way she did. The thought made me smile, and made me proud of myself.

"Oh well don't mention it." I responded in the midst of a nervous laugh. "I really didn't mean… Well I did, but you know what I mean. I did what almost anyone would have done."

"Don't be so modest!" Iciris laughed, having sheathed his sword and was then slinging it over his shoulders again.

"I said 'almost anyone,' didn't I?" I asked, giving a flat look to Iciris.

"Whatever." He brushed off my accusing stare and walked over to Rii, kneeling before her to be more her level.

"You're pretty cute." He said, quite openly and shamelessly like it was a casual thing. "And pretty polite too. I'm pretty sure we'll be good friends."

He had taken Rii's hand, and despite wearing a glove, he rose it so that he could lean in slightly, pull down the neck of his muffler, and kiss the back of her hand, like a gentleman. Rii probably went several shades of red, and I could only think that Iciris was the most shameless guy I had ever seen. What was she, fifteen years old? He almost looked twenty! The whole scene would have lowered my respect for him more if I hadn't first seen what was beneath the guise he held over his face. I knew now at least he had a normal mouth, and straight teeth.

"Alright, get off her Iciris." I said flatly as I nudged him with my foot. "Isn't that what you said to the last twenty-five girls we've seen? Stop pretending."

"What!" Iciris rose to his feet in a hurry. "I didn't say anything like that to anyone! You keep your mouth shut!"

Rii giggled. I could only cross my arms and grin. It'd have been a lot more fun with Iciris around if I had an audience to witness when I bested him. Though the thought hit me that the kid I was looking for wasn't in Payon. He wouldn't have gone into that cave, not alone, and I would have heard something about him if he were there.

"Iciris, the person's not here." I said after a moment, after letting him settle down. "He couldn't be here."

"Probably not." He answered. "We should get out of here, fast… So we can catch up to him, wherever he went."

"Excuse me." Rii interrupted politely again. So I guess if it was polite, it wasn't really an interruption… Was it more of an interjection? "Who are you looking for?"

"We're looking for a kid." Iciris answered. "A boy, everyone's been looking for him. I heard he was somewhere around here, but… I guess we missed him or something."

**Or** he was just stupid and led me in the wrong direction.

"A boy? I think I heard of him…" Rii stated, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Hmm, I heard someone say he was a demon-slayer."

"I heard that too…" I said, just figuring it wasn't coincidence.

"Yeah it's said he's supposed to be able to take out any monster that comes at him." Iciris chimed in, but simply shook his head afterwards. "Nobody could do that though, there're tons of things that'd rip anyone the shreds. Anyone who thinks some kid can take on anything just because of some stupid rumors is clearly an idiot."

"I heard that there's been lots of things being said about him," Rii said. "In Geffen."

"Geffen?" I looked to Iciris for some info.

"Geffen's a city to the west. Not too far from Prontera." He responded, leaning against the mountainside and crossing his arms. "It's famous for its research about magic, and trains all kinds of Mages. Seems like a waste of time, all that magic crap… You have to be really smart to learn ho to use it, and I mean _really smart_. I won't lie, I could never do it. It's a wussy way of fighting anyways. It's a long way away from here though, it'd take us a long time to walk there."

"But how do we know that we should even go there…?" I asked, looking back to Rii.

"Well it sounds like the people in Geffen are very smart." She responded in a matter-of-fact manner. "So I think if anyone would know where the boy you're looking for is, it would be someone who is there."

"I'd say it's a good idea." Iciris said. "Though I never liked Magicians…"

"Alright so…" I looked to Iciris then. "… Would you take me there then?"

"If I have to." Iciris responded flatly. "This time we'll get a tent and things, and then say 'bye-bye' to Payon for a while."

"So you're leaving soon then?" Rii asked. "Then… if it's not much trouble… is it alright if I come to?"

"What!" Iciris jumped from his spot. "Why the hell?"

"I'm sorry I just want to get out of Payon." She smiled. "I've lived here for so long, and I've never seen too much of the outside world. I just think it would be nice to see."

"What am I, a baby-sitter now?" Iciris asked, a heavy tone of annoyance in his voice.

"You know… I don't think I'd mind that." I answered with a smile. "The more the merrier, right?"

I wasn't really thinking about why I agreed to let her come with us. I guess it was because she was nice, and I thought that maybe I could be her friend. Back in Morroc, when I was younger, it was a 'fend for yourself' kind of place. There really wasn't a lot of time to make friends, and socialize. I had friends before, but none that were anywhere near my age. I had befriended the old man that looked after the pub - Someone who must have been over fifty years old, thinking back. At the time, I didn't see anything wrong with letting her come along. She was actually kind of cute, too. Unlike Iciris, though, I didn't try to treat women any differently than I would another guy.

"What? Why?" Iciris protested.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Another pay cut?" He brought an undisputable fact to my attention.

"I don't mind." But he wasn't going to get the better of me, of course.

"Really?" Rii asked. "I can come? It's alright?"

"Yeah." I answered before Iciris could protest any more.

"Thank you." Rii smiled as she stood up. "And you don't have to give me any money… Whatever you do is your business. I only want to know one thing. Why does Iciris wear sunglasses even inside a dark, damp cave?"

"Let's put it this way, cutie…" Iciris answered. "… It's a whole hell of a lot easier to find someone, if nobody knows what you look like. Think of it as a low profile."


	4. Chapter 4: Honesty is the Best Policy

**Chapter 4: Honesty is the Best Policy**

Iciris wasn't lying when he had said that traveling to Geffen from Payon was a big trip. It had taken Iciris and I around five days to just go from Izlude to Payon. Seeing how Geffen was west of Prontera, around a five-day and five-night trip away, and from my guesses towards the scale of the map, the distance between Prontera and Geffen added at least two more days onto the trip, making it a weeks worth of travel. I also thought about our speed, making the weeklong trip probably last a week and a day at the least. It was mainly Iciris's fault, he moved slow to begin with, and since he had insisted on carrying all of the equipment he'd bought, he moved even slower. He wouldn't let anyone else help

Rii had ended up coming with us. No matter how much Iciris complained, I didn't let down, and she came with us. I had decided to take the time to get to know her, since our trip was going to be fairly long. While I was at it, I figured it would be a good time to make an attempt at getting to know Iciris. I didn't like him, but I knew that if I was going to go that long with him, it was better if I knew what I was up against. So in the few following days, I worked at it. It was easy enough for me to talk to Rii, maybe because she felt indebted to me, but it was just far easier than it was talking to Iciris.

I found out a good deal about her, what she liked, what she didn't like. She didn't like fish, but she loved birds. She thought bows were cute, and puppies. Bugs were probably right on the bottom of the list of things she liked, with fish. I suppose anything that wiggled, or felt slimy, she didn't like. She was a regular girl-girl. You know the kind, a stereotypical girl. She wasn't shy, she seemed to go with the flow real easy, and liked enough girly things that made most guys want to puke. But I thought it was a relief. She was someone who wasn't that hard to figure out, and I knew almost exactly what to do and when, depending on if I wanted to lift her spirits, or tease her, or whatever. Occasionally I'd grab a bug, like one of those caterpillar things I saw when I first arrived in the Prontera Region, and would run right up to her with it.

"Look!" I'd say, holding it right out at her. "Isn't it cool?"

She'd scream her lungs out and trip over herself.

"Ew! Linkin! Get it away! Go! Ewww!" She'd yell at me.

She'd get mad after that. I always thought she had a better sense of humor, but I was wrong. She'd stop talking to me, or pretend I didn't exist. I never thought all girls were like that. Maybe, I thought, it was just her way of being angry with me. No matter how hard I tried, or what I did, she'd just ignore me and wouldn't say a word to me until nightfall. Then, what she would say to me usually led to some sort of guilt trip. "You shouldn't scare me like that," or, "You know I hate bugs." I'd feel kind of bad, but at the same time, it was fun watching her get all worked up over something. It'd make me laugh, and she was so… I don't know. She was like a kid, almost. I couldn't help but tease her a little. I'd offer her fish to eat, too, and she'd reject the offer until she'd get so bugged I thought her eyes would pop out of their sockets. It was kind of cute.

Iciris on the other hand just watched the two of us. Where he'd normally be talkative, he was very quiet. I was beginning to wonder what was wrong on the third day, and tried to ask him about it. But it was obvious he had dodged the question. He kept his distance, but it was not like he was mad at me, or Rii. He'd still go fishing for us, or build fires for us. Of course, he'd complain about things all the way through, or boast about how great he was going to be one day, but that wasn't unusual. What was unusual was the silence he held at every other moment. It was a lot more extended than normal. So when I wasn't talking to Rii, I'd try to talk to him.

From what I could unearth from all the bullshit he spouted, Iciris was a fairly interesting guy. He didn't come from the Prontera Region, where I'd met him. But he never told me where he _did_ come from; apparently it wasn't any of my business. It wasn't that important anyways. It didn't sound like he liked his family too much, or at least, his father; for some reason he made his father to sound like a very insensitive man. I wasn't sure if Iciris was just acting immaturely towards his father, or if his father was actually that way, but I'd decided against making a complete decision. It wasn't much to know, but it was something. It sounded like Iciris's family consisted of him, his two brothers, and both his mother and his father. It sounded like a nice little family unit when I compared it to my family… that at that time really just consisted of me alone.

I never knew my father. I was young when he'd left home for one reason or another, and he never came back. I could only assume that he left my mother and I. We had to live on our own, and it was hard. My mother worked at the local pub while I stayed at home and did whatever I could to entertain myself until she got home. Sometimes I wouldn't see her until the day after she'd left, and she'd have been worked almost to the bone, it seemed. I wouldn't be able to talk to her, because she'd be sleeping, and when she would wake up, it would be off to work again. It's not to say she never spent time with me. On her days off, it was always just she and I, and I'd love it.

Iciris's complaining about his family had brought me such fond memories of my own family that I'd almost completely forgot about him. This was about four days into the trip. Rii had been walking ahead of us, while we spoke to one another. She was leading us through some thick woods. It was strange for me. I'd never seen the kind of trees the Prontera Region had to offer, and there I was, immersed in them. Everywhere I looked there were branches with green needles on it. All the pine had criss-crossed, decorating everything beneath in little speckles of sunlight. It was interesting, it almost seemed like a whole new world was secluded beneath the trees, hidden away, like a little sanctuary. But it made we wonder what would happen if I stayed in there too long. Coming from the desert, I wasn't a stranger to sunburn, or heat stroke. So one completely useless thought I had was the fact that someone would have red dots all over their body if they were burned.

"Watch out." Rii said back to me as she moved a branch out of her way and let it go, sending it flying back at me. I quickly stopped it with my hands, wincing a little as the impact kind of hurt. I then did the same thing, moving the branch aside before letting it go.

"Heads up, Iciris!" I called back.

"What?" Iciris responded before I heard the branch hit something, and immediately after, Iciris shouting, "Fuck!"

Turning around, I saw Iciris on the ground. I'd knocked him back, and he fell off his feet, but landed in a sitting position. He had his hands over his eyes, rocking back and forth as he tried to deal with the pain. It was obvious that the branch had hit him in the face. He hissed a he drew his breath in though his clenched teeth, taking one hand from his face to plant on the ground as he moved to stand up. I then noticed that I'd knocked his glasses off, and I could see the colour of his eye clear as day. It was blue, as vibrant a blue as Rii had. He glared at me; his hand over is other eye, where I could see him covering up a cut.

"Are you stupid!" He shouted. "You hit me right in the damn eye!"

"You have blue eyes?" I asked.

"Who cares!" Iciris shouted back. "Christ, where's my glasses?"

"Here they are." Rii said. She'd gone and gotten his sunglasses for him, since they'd flown off. Iciris snatched them out of her hands and took his hand off his eye. There was a cut across his eye, and he kept it closed to keep his blood from getting in. If that wasn't bad enough, his sunglasses had a series of cracks over that right eye's side. The tinted lens, while still in tact, was ruined.

"God damn it." Iciris muttered, putting the glasses on again. "You broke my glasses you idiot."

"It was an accident," I said defensively, raising my hands in a harmless gesture. "Sorry."

"Whatever. You owe me for new ones." Iciris scoffed as he trekked onwards. I watched him go, and looked to Rii. She simply shrugged, and I could only give a nervous laugh, followed by an equally nervous smile.

And so we continued. It was when we reached the one-day-remaining mark of our trip, after passing through the Forest, the Desert, the Prontera Fields, Prontera, and were nearing the city of Geffen within the Geffen Fields, that Rii decided to ask about me. She wanted to know what it was like where I had come from, and how I lived. I didn't mind telling her, and I didn't even mind that Iciris was listening. I explained it in the best way I could, leaving out a few details, not wanting to make life sound as bad as it was in Morroc.

"Well, I come from the desert." I answered.

"I knew that." She responded politely. "It must have been hard living in a place like that for so long."

"It grows on you." I responded with a shrug as I walked next to Rii. Iciris was walking along behind us, lugging all of our things.

"I heard he was kind of poor." Iciris chimed in. I looked over my shoulder at him, raising an eyebrow in annoyance. But when I looked back at Rii, she had that look on her face – the look of pity. I simply let out a little bit of a laugh.

"It's no big deal." I said. "Sure, things were a little hard, but it's not like I was the only one. Morroc is a poor city, for the most part, the Thieves and the Sultan are probably the only real rich ones."

"You're a Thief, aren't you?" Rii asked curiously.

"Well yeah." I answered.

"Why did you decide to become a Thief?" She asked. I paused. When there was a moment of silence, with me trying to think of how to answer that question, she seemed to notice she had said something that I didn't particularly want to talk about. "Um, but if you don't want to tell me… I understand. You just don't seem the type of person who'd be a Thief."

She raised a good point, though. I simply answered her with, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." I left it at that, and neither Rii nor Iciris asked any questions. But she was right, I probably didn't seem like the type, to her. Lots of people thought that Thieves were bad people, who liked to steal, and generally make people's lives worse for their own reasons. For the most part, they were like that. I knew many Thieves back in Morroc that had done terrible things, ones who seemed to hate everyone around them. But there wasn't one Thief in the entire world that didn't come to that Guild because they were having a hard time. Lots of them were orphans, or outcasts. Each of them had been twisted in some way or another to dislike the higher people of society, and some even loathed the world. I didn't act that way, I made sure not to. Maybe that was what threw her off.

That last day seemed short in comparison to all the others. Before I knew it, it was nightfall, and we stood at the gates of Geffen City. It was a beautiful city inside, though we had reached the city at night, so the streets were nearly completely empty. Torches lit the streets, lining the sidewalks. The entire city seemed circular, centered on a white limestone tower erected in the middle of everything. It stood several stories tall, with random lights seeping from within some of the various windows that scaled the tall structure. The tower itself was settled within a pit of sorts, four stairways at the north, south, east and west sides of this pit leading in. Then there was an outer ring of houses and shops, and then the town wall. From above, it probably looked like some sort of target. The roads were made out of laid stones, and the buildings were made of wood. Some how smoke coming from the chimneys on top of them.

It was night, and only the guards were patrolling the streets. Rii and I had spent our time looking around while Iciris had collapsed in fatigue from carrying all those things. A guard approached us and told us that we were out after curfew, and gave us a chance to explain who we were. We said we were just passing through. He directed us to the nearest inn and went back onto his rounds, so we went there as quickly as possible. We got there just before it closed, and got ourselves two separate rooms - a two-bedroom for Iciris and I, and a singular-bed room for Rii. Iciris marched off to bed as soon as we got there, complaining that it'd be hard to find new glasses in Geffen. I on the other hand took my time saying goodnight to Rii.

"Linkin?" She called as I turned to head to my room. I paused and turned back to her, wondering what she wanted.

"Traveling with you and Iciris has been really fun." She said. "My parents used to travel all the time, and not let me come with them… I always wanted to see other places like this."

"Well I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." I said with a smile. "I'm just glad I have someone other than Iciris to talk to sometimes."

"I've loved it." Rii reaffirmed. "Prontera was so big, I thought I'd get lost. If I didn't take hold of your hand, I would have never found my way out! And you and Iciris are a lot of fun to be around…"

"Well, you wanted to come with us so bad, I figured it was a good idea to let you." I admitted, sliding my hands into my pockets with a shrug.

"Well thank you.' She responded with a smile before turning on her heels and opening the door to her room. "Goodnight Linkin."

"Night." I responded with a wave. She slowly closed the door behind her, giving me the chance to turn and walk down the hall a little ways to my room.

"Shit!" I heard Iciris shout.

"Quiet down!" I said when I opened the door and poked my head in. "What are you doing, anyways?"

"Cleaning the scratch on my eye." Iciris answered, a kind of grunt in his voice. "It's all swollen. It stings!"

"Ouch." I said with a chuckle as I walked into the room and sat down on my bed, beginning to slide off my boots, then my jacket.

"What are you laughing at?" He asked, his back to me. He'd already gotten undressed and was just in a pair of pants. It was hard not to notice how physically fit he was, then. "This is all your fault you know."

"Yeah, sorry." I said, half-heartedly. He hadn't listened to my last apology, so I didn't expect him to just then.

"Ah, it's alright." He said as he continued to try and clean the wound. It looked like he was dabbing some alcohol on it. The wound hadn't closed in those few days, and was swollen… All he could really do was keep it clean and let it heal. He hissed a little in pain as the alcohol made contact with the cut, clenching his hand around the cloth he was using to do so. As soon as he was done, he picked up an eye patch he'd bought off a passing Merchant on the trip and put it on over his eye, and then started getting into bed. I'd stripped myself of everything but my underwear by then, and was already in bed.

"Ready?" I asked, reaching to the bedside oil lamp, ready to turn it off.

"Yeah yeah." Iciris answered, his visible eye already closed.

I turned the switch on the lamp then, letting it flicker off before I got into bed as well, thinking over everything that I'd learned about Rii and Iciris. More importantly, I remembered back to why I'd gone to Geffen in the first place. I wondered who was looking for this kid, who was apparently a demon-hunter. So many people seemed to know about him, so I was starting to think he was somehow famous. I wouldn't have been surprised, since that lady in Payon had said that he had legendary strength. As hard as it was to believe, I couldn't help but wonder who I was getting myself involved with. But, I could only roll over in my bed, and figure that whoever was looking for him in that city would know more about him than I did.


	5. Chapter 5: The Sage, The Legend

**Chapter 5: The Sage, The Legend**

I didn't want to wake up right away. Even when I had surfaced from a dream, and my eyes had fluttered open to be met by a ray of morning sunlight pouring through one of the windows at the side of the room, I didn't feel up to getting out of the comfortable bed I was offered for the night. The white satin sheets and wool blankets were just too great in comparison to the roll-up bed I had to use for a week and a bit before that. I, however, was the only one who wanted to stay in bed. Rii, who always seemed to have the energy to do things, was already up and dressed, and in the room with Iciris and I. Iciris was up as well, and dressed, and looked ready to go. The two of them were bothering me to get up and get out of bed, which I did eventually because I knew I had to.

Breakfast wasn't offered at the inn. It was far too small, and only had about four rooms, two single-beds and two doubles. So we started our day a few hours before noon by going out and finding something to eat. It turned out that Geffen didn't grow a great amount of crops. Being near some water, the townspeople took more to fishing. Though it wasn't a major practice. The shop owners we spoke to would say that their food was imported from another city, so I had come to figure that all their food was imported. I didn't really know much about economics, so I asked Iciris and Rii about it. Neither of them knew either. It wasn't that important, I guessed. We eventually got some bottles of milk, some fresh bread, and some fish to eat for a fairly good price. I ate it all without a second thought, and Iciris ate his in the same way. Rii was a little more sparing… Maybe because she seemed so much smaller compared to Iciris and I.

After eating, Rii wanted to go and look at the sights and souvenirs. So, Iciris and I went with her to look around at everything until noon. There were lots of things to see, and it was easy to tell that it was the city of magic. Most of the buildings were made of white limestone like the giant tower in the center of the city, and the streets weren't lined with torches, like I'd thought, but they were lined with some other strange metal device. They were lights made of glass, and lit up as soon as it got dark enough. I was amazed by those alone, but there were all kinds of nice jewels and street-side shows and exhibits to see. One young man at the side of the street was actually _juggling_ balls of fire! He drew quite a crowd, and put on a flashy display while throwing and catching the balls of fire. Rii was very impressed, and kept asking Iciris and I if we had seen something when he had done it. Of course we saw, and eventually just nodded while not really listening to her. Aside from that, there were many finely carved jewels on display at certain places. One specific set of gems were said to have been used for magic spells. Rii had actually bought one, spending most of her money to do it. She bought a blue one, and showed it to me as if it were the greatest treasure on earth. I had to admit, it was cute. Especially when she made the comparison of the gem with my hair.

It was a light-hearted trip for a while. It felt more like a vacation than some sort of business trip. But, along with putting his sour opinion in on Mages, Iciris didn't let me forget why I was there. It was actually hard to believe he had left most of the women in the city alone during his stay. He must have stood true to his disliking towards Magic, because he would have normally hit on any girl he saw. But assuming that most of them were Magicians, he stayed away. Of course, shop owners and Merchants weren't safe from his clutches.

Eventually we set our sights on asking around for the child we were looking for. It was almost surprising how much they knew about the kid. It was a boy for sure, like the woman in Payon had said, and he had brown hair. His skin was white, not a pale white, but a Caucasian white, in whatever normality that stands for. Lots of people had their own stories, however. Some said he was wandering, and nobody knew where he was going to go next, and that he was being a hero everywhere he went. Others said that he had disappeared to train in the wilderness, and had become a violent savage. There was even a person who claimed that the child's "missing" status was actually just some conspiracy. I didn't know who to believe, and nobody gave me any leads or anything… The search appeared fruitless.

After asking around for an hour, Iciris had pulled me close, and lowered his voice.

"I think we're being followed." He said, tilting his head a bit to his left. I turned my head to look, but he reached up and pushed my cheek roughly back. "Don't look! It's a guy with blonde hair, shorter than yours or mine by a little bit. He's got pointy ears, too. C'mon, just keep walking."

We were in a crowd, and Rii had gotten ahead of us, so I set my attention on catching up to her. We moved towards the center, to the small, circular area around the tower in the center of town, so we would lead this mysterious man to a smaller area. After walking around the tower a few times, I was able to see the man. Iciris had pointed him out to be subtly. He had stopped to just watch us as we moved, and I got a good look at him. He was about as tall as Iciris was, though Iciris was a tall person, and he did have neatly done blonde hair with a few stray bangs. He had brown eyes that appeared slightly more narrow than most, and his features looked moderately aged, older then Iciris and I at least. He wore a long, heavy robe that was tan in colour until it got to the collar piece, which was a dark brown with an elaborate pattern over his shoulders and a little over the chest and back, looking like a circle. His robes were done up with varies ties across his chest, like buttons on a shirt, until it reached his waist, where it parted like a long coat. His pants were a dark brown as well, and his undershirt appeared to be red from what I caught of it. His shoes were simple, looking openly steel-toed. Held in his bare hands was a staff, about as tall as he was, with an ornament on the top, a red jewel in it. It was odd how I'd never noticed him before. Like Iciris said, his ears were pointed at the top, looking larger than a normal human beings'.

We passed by the man as he leaned against the wall of the tower, my eyes making contact with his for a brief moment before the glance was broken and I turned away. Iciris, Rii, and I kept walking then until we left the center of the city and back to the outside, rounding back to the inn, where we entered and went back to the room Iciris and I had shared. Once inside, we closed the door behind us. I sat down on my bed, next to Rii, while Iciris sat down on his bed. He'd bought a new pair of sunglasses, and had put them on over the eye patch he had taken to wearing over his eye.

"Nothing." I said.

"Nope." Iciris confirmed. "Geffen's a smart place, I'm kinda surprised that nobody around here's even got a clue."

I sighed and hunched a little.

"Looks like you're going to have to find some other job." Iciris said bluntly. "We're never going to find him."

"But what does that mean?" Rii asked. "Doesn't that mean we all have to go home?"

"Why?" Iciris and I both responded in a lower tone. I paused for a moment, looking to Iciris, who raised an eyebrow. I proceeded to respond.

"I don't want to just go home." I said, looking to Rii. "There's nothing in Morroc for me anymore. I have to find something to do away from there."

"I haven't been home in years." Iciris said, standing up. Rii's eyes followed him. "And I'm not gonna be going back anytime soon. Do whatever the hell you want, but I'm not going to be sticking around if there's no money involved."

Iciris turned on his heels, collecting his things from next to his bed, leaving a few things that I figured he was nice enough to let Rii and I use. Lifting his pack from his back, he stepped over to the door and rested his hand on the knob. I wasn't going to stop him, and neither was Rii. If he wanted to give up, I was been fine with that. His leaving wouldn't have affected me much. I figured I'd just go and look for more jobs or ways to get money, and just work things from there. I didn't really want to have to say good-bye to Rii and never see her again, however. So I considered asking her to go with me, if she didn't mind.

But a knock on the door shook me from my thoughts, and I looked up Iciris still had his hand on the knob, and hadn't left. We all looked to the door, and Iciris opened it without hesitation. At the door stood that man, with the blonde hair and pointed ears, staff in hand. Iciris looked at him for a moment, as did we all. I for one wondered why he'd followed us all the way to our room, but I didn't think he was meaning to cause us harm – he did come right to our door, after all.

"Can I help you?" Iciris asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry if I'm intruding," The man responded. His voice sounded middle-aged, at least. "I just noticed that you had come into town with your friends and I wanted to ask you something."

"Well, don't jump to conclusions about the whole 'friends' thing." Iciris responded. "But they are my cohorts, yeah."

"I never would have guessed." The man said, seeming to smile with a knowing glint in his eye. I watched him closely… He seemed to look like a good person, judging by how he acted. "Anyways, to the point… You wouldn't have happened to see a young man around, have you? He's a little out of the ordinary, I'm sure you'd know him if you saw him."

"You mean the missing kid that everyone's looking for?" I asked, standing up.

"I suppose that would be him." The man responded. "Ever the popular person, isn't he? You haven't seen him, I'm guessing?"

"Not a trace." I responded with a shrug of my shoulders. "We came here looking for him, too."

"You haven't even heard a word?" The man asked. "Well, I suppose that's just as well… It doesn't really surprise me. The boy's kept a good veil over himself. Barely makes a trace."

"Why are you looking for him?" Rii asked from her spot on the bed, the man looking over to her.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." The man responded, raising a hand in an earnest gesture. "I have reasons all my own. It's just crucial that I find him."

"I see…" Rii responded.

"Well, it's too bad I guess." Iciris responded, moving to close the door in the elf's face. "Good luck!"

"Hold on one moment." The man responded, resting his hand on the door and stopping it. Poking his head inside again, glanced curiously at us. "You're sure you haven't seen him? A boy with different colour eyes?"

"Different coloured eyes?" Iciris asked. "That's impossible."

"I guess not then." The man responded with a kind of frown. He made it disappear though and nodded. "Enjoy the evening then."

Iciris closed the door quickly again, the man barely able to pull his head out in time without having it slammed between the door and the frame. Iciris then turned around and rested his back against the door; sinking down a bit before he appeared to direct his gaze towards me. I knew what that meant. That was the man we had seen before, and Iciris was just glancing at me in acknowledgement, since we knew what the man had wanted before. But he did seem a little mysterious.

"Damn Mages, annoy the hell outta me." Iciris sighed.

"He didn't look like just any Mage." Rii said. I had only just begun to see Mages; I didn't know that they had some distinguishing qualities about them.

"He was a Sage." Iciris said. "They're a bit different… They don't just do magic for the hell of it, they apply it to things. Most of them are researchers or important things like that."

"But what did he want with the kid?" I asked.

"Well I don't know." Iciris answered in a sarcastic kind of tone. "He wasn't exactly the most revealing."

"But what was he saying about the boy having different coloured eyes?" Rii asked, lifting her legs to rest them on the bed. "I've never seen anyone with different coloured eyes before."

"Yeah, what did he even mean by that?" I asked, running my fingers through my hair. "Did he mean that their eyes were two different colours, or that both their eyes had two colours in them?"

"Like brown eyes with blue specks…" Rii said in thought.

"Or something like that." Iciris said. "I've never heard of anyone having two different colours in their eyes before though. I don't think anyone in the entire world is like that."

"Well, maybe there was?" Rii asked, her blue eyes gazing at me curiously.

"Maybe." I said, shrugging towards her. "How could we find out? It's not like we can just look it up."

"Look it up…" Rii repeated my words, rubbing her chin in thought with her gloved hand. She quickly looked up then, looking directly at me. "Remember that big tower in the middle of town?"

"Yeah, what about it?" I asked.

"Isn't that a Library?" She asked, and I had remembered back to the entrance of the large tower. It was a simple arch that leads inside, no doors or anything, with a guard stationed out front. I remembered that the guard said something about the tower being a dangerous place on the lower floors, but the higher floors were used for storing information, and performing alchemy. I didn't know what alchemy was, but I knew what a book was. So it was starting to make sense to me.

"Yeah…" I said in realization. "What kind of information do you think they have there?"

"I don't know, maybe something on someone with two differently coloured eyes?" Rii asked, standing up. We both knew it was going to be a new adventure when we would leave for the tower. I was actually getting a little excited about going.

"Fat chance." Iciris piped in negatively. "Why would an archive like that have information on just one person? Sure, they have records and biographies, but there's hundreds of those. Hell, they could have one about maybe every person in Rune-Midgarts!"

"Well it's worth a shot." I said, looking to Iciris.

"You're wasting your time." Iciris grumbled. "I guess you're going to want me to come along too?"

"It's a lead." I responded.

"Fine." Iciris grumbled again with a sigh, turning around and opening the door, heading out. "Hurry up then!"

I looked at Rii, and we both shrugged in unison before we got our things together and left. We hurried to catch up with Iciris, who ha walked out of the building quickly by the time Rii and I were out the room's door. We walked along, not having to go too far. It was easy to know how to get to the tower, since it stood in the middle of the town. We had approached it from the northeast end, so we had to walk around to the south side of the tower to find the door, where the guard was still stationed. With a yawn, he asked us what we wanted, and we answered with the fact that we wanted to see the Library. He was a little suspicious, wondering what a group of random young people would want. But he had no problem with letting us in. So he allowed us to enter, having another guard escort us through the tower to where we wanted to be.

We walked up a few floors, which was a lot more work than it sounded like. But on the fourth floor up, we ha come to where we wanted to be. Leading us inside, the guard took a step aside, allowing us to enter. As soon as we did, I was nearly blown away by how many books there were! The room was dark, lit by torches - lots and lots of torches. But the shelves of books lined the walls, and made aisles in the middle of the room. And remarkably, the shelves were several feet taller than me… Iciris was taller than me, and maybe stood somewhere around six feet tall, but the shelves dwarfed him. They reached the ceiling, and I would have to bend my head back just to try and see the top of the stacks. The walls were white marble, or at least they looked that way, which was the same with the floor, and the ceiling. Purple, gold-lined carpet ran up and down the aisles of books, and pillars stood in the usual finely structured positions, the pillars being a few feet wide. Nobody else was in sight.

"Wow…" Rii and I said at the same time.

"Yeah, wow." Iciris said flatly.

"Look at all the books!" Rii said, running ahead into the stacks and eying all the cooks, which from where I was standing just looked like multi-coloured rectangles.

"I've never seen so many!" She went on, taking off and skipping through the stacks, just looking at all the books. Or maybe she was seeing them, but not really _looking_ at them.

"Please don't run in the Library!" The guard called out, making Rii slow down. "And please whisper!"

Iciris had taken it upon himself to walk over to a large book, standing on its own up against the side of one of the shelves, and started scanning through it. I walked over to him and just watched him as he traced his gloved finger over the pages, seeming to be looking for something. After a while, he was able to tell Rii and I exactly which bookshelf to go and search through, saying that there were books about people all over Rune-Midgarts in that certain section. Rii got right to work, looking through books, taking out a bunch and looking through them at the pictures of the people inside them. Occasionally she'd say someone's name, and point out his or her picture. I never knew whom she was talking about, and could only nod and smile whenever she had something to say about a book before I'd go back to scanning through the shelves.

I never expected that finding a book would take so long. I did what Rii did, looking at the pictures of people in the books to see if I could find anyone that fit the description. It took ages, and we were told a few times by the guard that we'd been in the Library for a long time, and would have to leave. Right when we were about to be told to leave, I managed to find a book. I don't remember what t was called, or what it said, but when I looked into it, I saw a picture of a strange man. He had long brown hair that reached his shoulders, and looked kind of rough in his appearance… The picture was really old, the ink looking as if it had worn off over the years… Hell, even the pages looked worn out and nearly falling out. But the awkward thing was that the inking over the man's eyes was green and blue. One of his eyes was one colour, and his other eye was the other colour, and they were drawn so they looked like they were glowing.

"Hey guys!" I called out. "I found it!"

"Shh!" I was met with the guard shushing me again.

Iciris and Rii came over to me, and glanced curiously at the book, seeing immediately the picture I held in my hands.

"What does it say?" Rii asked.

I paused, kind of feeling a little embarrassed. The truth was, I didn't know how to read. When I lived in Morroc, I didn't go to school. I never learned how to read or write. I barely even knew how to count, to be honest. So when Rii had asked that question, I fell silent, blushing a little in spite of my illiteracy. The two of them just kind of stared at me, expecting me to tell them something. I looked to either one of them, and broke out a nervous sort of smile. What was I supposed to say?

"I… don't know." I answered hesitantly.

"Don't know?" Iciris asked. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean… I don't know what it says." I answered, hiding my face from them behind the book.

"Why not?" Rii asked.

I didn't answer, and when I didn't, Iciris seemed to hint on after a while.

"Wait, don't tell me," He said, in a highly amused tone. "… You can't read!"

I blushed when he aid it just like that. It was actually embarrassing, since I seemed to be the only person who couldn't read in that group. It didn't help that Iciris openly laughed at me, too. He was just being mean, I knew, but I couldn't tell if it was a friendly kind of mean, or just… mean. I slowly lowered the book to see Iciris nearly tripping over his laughter, leaning up against a bookshelf and trying to contain himself, as if hearing that someone couldn't read was the most outrageous thing he'd ever heard. Rii looked a little distressed, probably knowing that I wasn't taking well to Iciris's mocking laughter. But she didn't say a word, and just kind of blushed like I did. Iciris's laughter seemed to drown out all other actions.

"Sorry, sorry!" Iciris said, taking a few breaths after he was done laughing. "I've never met anyone too stupid to read – tickled me pink!"

"Iciris, stop it." Rii protested gently. "Don't be mean to him."

"I said I was sorry." Iciris said, sliding a finger beneath his glasses to rub at his eye. "I learned how to read when I could barely walk, and this guy can't read a single word?"

"It's not funny!" Rii said defensively.

"Can you read?" Iciris asked her.

"Yes…" She responded.

"You're younger than he is!" Iciris stated with a little chuckle. "It's a little funny, you have to admit."

"Don't mind him." Rii said, taking the book from my hands. I just kind of stared at her dumbly. "He's just insensitive."

"Well, read it out to us then." Iciris said, watching Rii now.

"Okay." Rii responded, looking to the first word on the first page, and taking a brief glance before she began to read – slowly. "Centuries ago, an evil walked the earth. It was an evil of the greatest cal… Um, salibure?"

"Gimmie that." Iciris said as he snatched the book away from her and took a look at what the book said. "_Caliber_. 'It was an evil of the greatest caliber, the Dark Lord – ruler of the Underworld. He marched forth from the blazing depths of his realm, bringing with him an army of demonic entities and hell-spawned creatures, and waged war on the people of earth, for control of the living realm. Rune-Midgarts was the point of arrival for this evil force, and the Dark Lord brought chaos to those lands, leaving many cities in ruin, and many people dead, adding to the ranks of his Hell-spawned armies. The people fought to defend their lands. Millions died. Grass was stained with the blood of war, families were killed, dreams ended, futures were destroyed. The skies ran black as night, the sun became a bright red orb, waters appeared as crimson pools of blood, and people and creatures alike seemed to be bathed in evil. Hearts were corrupted by power. Soon, people began to side with the Dark Lord, siding with the forces that had sought to rid the world of all human existence. Dispute broke out between the people. Humanity seemed to crumble at its very foundation. The aspects of trust, friendship, brotherhood, all disappeared. Chaos swept over the land.

But at the bleakest moment, when all seemed lost, there appeared a young man. Seemingly coming from nowhere, this young man marched forth against the Dark Lord. This man had one blue eye, and one green eye, and held within his hand a sword of magnificent power. With him were several allies… And with the lost aspects of human nature – companionship, hope, faith – he marched forth, cutting all the evil that stood in his path. His skills were un-rivaled, his abilities, legendary. He was able to stand against the Dark Lord in single combat, and in a grueling battle, was able to defeat him. He sent the Dark Lord, and all who had followed him back to the god-forsaken lands from which they arrived, and then simply disappeared. The people were baffled as to the identity of this young man, however religious texts relate to a Prophecy that stated as follows:

_When the air is purged with evil, when the waters taste of blood, when men set themselves against their fellow man, a savoir will come. One will walk, carrying with them the hopes and dreams that were all but lost, and a weapon of light that casts away the darkness at the slightest touch. With these, the warrior of light will fight for the salvation of the world._

From that point on, he was known simply as 'The Warrior of Light.' However, some centuries afterwards, a child was born with one blue eye, and one green eye. The people were brought to a state of shock, realizing that the child bared a similar likeness to The Warrior of Light. As he grew, it became apparent that they held magnificent skills within them, and seemed to come head and shoulders above the rest… He was trained immediately as a warrior, and when he became a young man, history repeated itself. The Dark Lord returned, and was cast away again by the mysterious man. Again, years later, another was born, and then another. With the death of each one soon came another, and these children with the dual-coloured eyes had come to be known as 'The Children of Prophecy.' The Prophecy continued to repeat itself for eons, for as long as time itself had been recorded…"

We were all quiet. I couldn't believe what I had just heard! A blue-and-green-eyed person had been recorded in history as a hero! Not only that… but people were looking for him now! A descendant of this hero lived among us. What I had thought to be a simple job now became a very big deal. Why would people be looking for a person that important? What did he do? What was he supposed to be doing? What would happen if someone found him and killed him? Would the world be over? These questions raced through my mind as Iciris closed the tome tightly, putting it back on the shelf.

"Wow…" Rii said in astonishment. "… A Child of Prophecy?"

"Some Child of Prophecy." Iciris huffed. "If he's alive now, you know what that means, don't you?"

"… The Dark Lord's coming back." I said, my mind being fairly distracted. "He's going to try and take over the world again, isn't he?"

"So why would people be looking for him?" Rii asked. "I mean, we're not in a war right now… Everything seems fine."

"I don't know." Iciris sighed. "But I don't wanna get involved with something like that. It's a bit too big for my tastes."

"I bet that guy we were talking to knows more about him than we do." I said, snapping my fingers. "He's got to be looking for him for a reason."

"Well duh." Iciris said sarcastically. "I doubt he's doing it for fun."

"I want to know what's going on." I said, turning to the two of them. "I want to know exactly why people are looking for this kid. I mean, if he's so important, wouldn't they want to know exactly where he is all the time?"

"How are we going to find out all those things?" Rii asked, looking at me curiously.

"Easy." I answered. "We're going to follow that Sage!"


	6. Chapter 6: William, the Advisor

**Chapter 6: William, The Advisor**

Rii, Iciris and I all packed up as quickly as we possibly could, not wanting to miss our chance to check out that Sage. Iciris wanted no part in the idea, and he'd never really agreed on it. But since Rii and I were both interested, we practically dragged him along. He carried all of our things while we looked for the man, so he'd have something to do. It took us a little while to find the man, but we'd managed to find him as he continued to ask around town about this Child of Prophecy. Like us, nobody seemed to know what he was talking about either. He was disappointed time and time again, and it only took hi around an hour before he decided to leave. We didn't catch where he was headed, but we followed him anyways, keeping a safe distance.

He just didn't seem to stop walking! We followed him with our map on hand, so we could watch where we wee heading. He was heading to the east, back from where we came. Despite this, we trailed him. We'd take alternate paths, so we could keep an eye on the man, but stay out of sight. We walked along for hours, just as he would walk, deciding that we'd rest only when he would. We didn't realize though that he'd seemingly walk for miles! We walked through lunch, leaving the three of us hungry as we followed him. He stopped when the sun was setting, and would sit against a tree and reach into his robe, taking out some dried food and eating it. Rii, Iciris and I figured we'd do the same thing. We took a rest too, sitting upon a cliff above the man where we could keep him in sight.

"Told you this was a bad idea." Iciris grumbled.

"But it's the only thing we can do." I said back to him, tossing him some food.

He caught it and asked, "But why?"

"For the money." I shrugged.

"You're telling me that this kid everyone's looking for is supposed to save the world," Iciris said flatly. "And you're still thinking about the money? That's bull."

"You're not doing it just to meet someone famous, are you Linkin?" Rii asked.

"No!" I answered. "Why would I want to meet someone famous? Seriously, I need the money."

"I think you just have your head in the clouds…" Iciris mumbled.

I ignored Iciris, and the three of us sat and ate. It was kind of cold, as the sun set. We weren't able to build a fire because it would have given us away to the Sage… The Sage on the other hand, made a fire and kept himself warm. We kept a close eye on him and from what I could tell he was pretty boring. Aside from eat all he did was read. But I supposed Sages liked to read. What else did they do? I didn't want to ask Iciris, as he seemed angry enough at the decision to follow the man in the first place. So I just watched to see if he'd do anything else. I sat on the cliff-side, just looking out at him. I noticed a few things about him that I tried matching to his lifestyle. He didn't talk, or say a word, not even to himself. He also had a big bag, and it looked to be completely full of books. He was an intellect – that, at least, I could guess for certain. He had no tent or any bedroll, or anything like that. It was strange, I thought. I could never sleep without some sort of bed, usually.

All in all… it was boring to watch.

It went like that for several hours into the night. He left himself in the darkness, just like we did, so it was difficult to see him below us. But something caught my eye. I stood up at the edge of the cliff and looked down at where he sat. There was a slight glowing light down there. It was barely a flicker, but the shine caught my eye. I was curious, since I assumed he was asleep. I wanted to see what was going on, but didn't have a good enough view. I needed to get closer. Looking around, I saw a tree; one of those trees with needles for leaves, close by. It was tall enough to reach the top of the cliff where I stood… I figured that would serve as a quick way to get down. So I slipped on my gloves and walked out towards the tree, looking at its tip.

"Linkin?" Rii's voice quietly called out to me. I looked back at her, and she was standing behind me, obviously not asleep yet.

"What are you doing?" She continued.

"That guy's doing something down there." I said quietly back. "Is Iciris awake?"

"No, he fell asleep." Rii answered.

"Then I'm going down to take a closer look." I answered her initial question.

"All by yourself?" Rii asked, seeming a little worried.

"I'll be fine." I waved off her concern, before looking back out to the tree. Taking a few steps back, I got a running start, jumping from the cliff and into the tree. I wrapped my arms and legs around whatever I could at first, as needles brushed against my face, blinding me for a moment as I closed my eyes to shield them from any harm. There was a rustling as I started to climb down, which was a task in itself. The needles on the tree hurt more than I thought they would! Sliding down with needles scratching at my entire body, my legs soon found themselves not touching any branches. I panicked a little and retreated up to the nearest branch, looking down at the ground below. It looked like I was still high up off the ground, and the trunk went on for several feet. I didn't want to jump down. Glancing about, I spotted another tree next to the one I was on, and headed towards that. That was when the tree I was in began to sway and rustle about. I looked and for a moment before looking up, seeing someone else in the tree. Squinting a little, I saw Rii climbing down the tree as well.

I looked away, as such a position gave too much of an opportunity to see right up that tunic she wore. I then whispered as loudly as quietly possible, "What are you doing?"

"Pine needles hurt!" She called quietly back down at me, continuing to climb down, getting scraped by needles as well, I assumed. When she managed to get next to me, she said, "You're not going by yourself. You'll get hurt."

Well, gee, isn't it sweet that a little girl was worried about me?

"I told you I'd be okay," I responded. "You just hurt yourself getting down here."

She said nothing, and I just shook my head, turning away to work to getting into the next tree. I had to get down and nearly crawl, barely clinging to the next branch and working my way along while hanging down. I shimmied across to the middle of the tree where the branch was more stable, and started pulling myself up. Rii followed along right behind me, bending the branches I was on quite a bit. Even though she was so light, I was scared that she was going to snap one of the branches clear off, and we'd fall.

Slowly we worked out way over, and down some more, until we were getting close to that flickering light. It peeked at me through the branches of the trees as we went, and I tried to stay as quiet as possible while approaching it. Every rustle got me kind of nervous, and I started thinking that my idea was stupid, and I wanted to go back. But as I thought that, Rii stopped me and crouched down low. We weren't too far from the light, now, but I still couldn't make out what it was I moved as close as I possibly could, with Rii right behind me. We really should have thought about it a little more, as when we got to the very edge of the branch, it suddenly snapped and fell out from beneath us. It felt like the breath was sucked from my lungs as I fell a few feet and hit the ground. I landed facedown, hitting my shins against the branch.

Pushing myself up, and crawled away from the branch and moved to sitting on the ground, rubbing my shins. Rii had fallen with me, and her legs had been scratched up, but she seemed fine as she gently brushed her gloved fingers along her legs. I looked back to the glowing light, expecting to see the Sage… But he wasn't there. Curiously, I painfully stood and walked over to the light, kneeling being all too easy as my throbbing shins were eager to give out beneath me. Reaching down, I picked up what appeared to be a yellow gemstone, much like the stone Rii had seen in Geffen. It glowed brighter when I picked it up, and in a flash of light disappeared into thin air. I opened and closed my hand a few times; to make sure what had happened really happened, completely dumbstruck.

"Why are you following me?"

The man's voice emerged with him from a bush, and he stepped out, standing firm, his mighty staff standing within his hand as he stared Rii and I down. I stood up slowly, but as I did, the man nearly readied his staff, so I stood completely still. Rii hadn't even gotten a chance to stand, and remained sitting.

"Well?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well…" I began, but couldn't finish. Being caught had left me all flabbergasted.

"Out with it," The man said. "Who sent you?"

"Nobody sent us!" I responded quickly. "Well, I sent us, I guess… But that's not what I mean…"

"Well if nobody sent you, then what do you want?" The man asked defensively. "You've been following me since this morning. People don't just do that for no reason."

"We're sorry…" Rii said quietly. "… We were just curious…"

"Curious?" The man repeated.

"About the boy." I answered. "With a green eye and a blue eye?"

"So you know." The man said, sighing as he propped his staff up at his side. Rii and I stood up and brushed our clothes off while he went on. "And here I thought you knew nothing of it."

"We didn't." I responded. "Then we went to the Library in Geffen and learned a few things about him."

"Most of the print regarding the Child of Prophecy is kept within the Schwarzvald Republic," The man said as he leaned a little against his staff. "However I'm not surprised that the Mages and Wizards of Geffen would have something that referred to it at least. What exactly do you know?"

"We know about the Prophecy, about the Dark Lord too." Rii answered as she idly fiddled with her gloves. She was nervous. "We know that since the first time, Children of Prophecy have been born and each one of them has defeated the Dark Lord in battle."

"And so you should have realized," The Sage said, "That if the current one is missing, then we could be in a state of grave danger. The current Child of Prophecy was born within the Schwarzvald Republic, and as such we had to take responsibility for his training. We had to hone his skills as a Warrior of Light so that he stood a fighting chance against the Dark Lord. However, he's gone missing."

"But how did he…?" I began, before Iciris's voice broke out to interrupt.

"Well there you two are!" He shouted as he approached from our right side. He came with his weapon, that large sword on his back, though still wore his sunglasses, even in the night. "What the hell're you doing? I thought we were following this guy, not going to have a chat with him."

"How rude," The Sage said, running his fingers over his slicked back blonde hair. "Who is this young man anyways?"

"Oh, um…" I started, shrugging my shoulders. "I'm Linkin, and this girl beside me is Rii, and that guy over there is Iciris."

"Linkin, Rii, and Iciris…" The man repeated, before a slight smile spread over his mature features. "Well, we could have met under better circumstances I'm sure, but I digress. I am William, William Asta, official appointed Advisor to the Child of Prophecy, and expert in all things regarding the matter. I come from Yuno, Capital of the Schwarzvald Republic. As you can probably clearly see, I am an Elf, and I am finely trained in the arts of a Sage. I have a particularly high I.Q. and enjoy reading adventure and horror novels, as well as quiet strolls along the beach or on particularly snowy nights."

Iciris, Rii and I just kind of stared at the man in disbelief as he went on with that spiel about himself. He paused for a moment to observe our expressions, or at least as many of us as he could, and then laughed lightly to himself. I started to get the feeling that while this man was older than all of us, and looked more mature than any of us, he wasn't "old." But I could tell from the way he spoke that he was very intelligent, but that should have been expected since he was a Sage. Sages had passed through Morroc before, and every one of them would pride themselves as a scholar or professor, and would know all kinds of things and be able to answer nearly every intelligent question you threw at them. I figured this man, William, was no different.

"I figured I'd be honest." William shrugged after observing our faces.

"Right, well…!" Iciris burst out as he walked over to Rii and I, took our hands in his strong grip, and started practically dragging us away. "As much as I like sitting around and hearing about you and your pansy smart-stuff, I've got a good twenty minutes of sleep to catch up on. So it was nice talking with ya, have a good night, and don't talk to me ever again – I don't think my ears could handle it."

"Well, actually…" William said calmly as Rii and I fussed against Iciris to get away. We didn't want to leave. But when William spoke we all stopped and looked back at him as he propped his staff up on his shoulder. "I was actually wondering something…"

"Oh no you don't!" Iciris exclaimed as he let go of my hand, and Rii's, making us both tumble backwards onto our backs on the ground. Iciris stepped over us and walked right up to William, rivaling the Sage in height, getting right up into his face and grabbing him by the scruff of his robes. "The only kinds of things Sages wonder about are the unexplained and the reactions people will have to certain questions, so if you so much as utter a single syllable of what I think you're going to ask us, I'll break your arm!"

"I was actually wondering if the three of you would accompany me?" William asked as he brushed Iciris's hands away. Iciris tried to grab at William again but couldn't before Rii and I were up and holding his arms back with all our might.

"That's just the thing I was talking about!" Iciris shouted as he pulled against Rii and I. "I don't want to get involved in any of this Prophecy crap!"

"Oh come now," William said dismissively. "What harm can it do? Besides, now that you all know the risk we're running I'm sure at least one of you have thought about finding the Child of Prophecy so that this impending doom looming over our heads could be stopped. And why else join me other than the fact that a group effort would take far less time? I assure you with the funds I am provided by Yuno's Sage's Guild that you will all be well fed and sheltered – and it could be quite the learning experience for all of you. There's absolutely no downside to it at all. Traveling the world to save the world? Tell me that doesn't sound appealing to any of you."

"Traveling the world…" Rii repeated. "It does sound very exciting…"

"And finding the Child of Prophecy sounds pretty important…" I said, looking to Rii as she looked back at me.

"Don't just get bought in like that!" Iciris shouted as he struggled and fussed. "I've been traveling the world for years – not that great! And that Child of Prophecy's damn impossible to find, believe me! It's a waste of time! I've got more important things I could be doing!"

"Come on Iciris, don't be such a grouch!" Rii argued. "This could be really fun!"

"Yeah, come on." I said, fairly convinced that this was a good idea. "Imagine all the money we could make hunting monsters – and being able to go day-by-day without having to worry about food or a place to sleep?"

"Yes Iciris," William said, putting on the most playful of pouty faces and a rather pleading disposition. "Please? I could use the help…"

"God damn it!!" Iciris shouted as he threw Rii off one of his arms, then with his freed arm pushed me off the other one so that we both fell back to the ground. "Fine, whatever, do whatever you want!"

"Well, now that that's settled," William said, his pout disappearing instantly as Iciris stormed off back towards our camp. William went to the tree to pick up his things – his pack and the large wrapped up object he carried, slinging them both over his back. "If you'd be so kind as to lead me to your camp? I'd follow that young man there, but I fear the large sword he carries."

Rii and I looked to each other in disbelief of what had just happened, and probably feeling a mutual remorse about once more forcing Iciris to cope with something he didn't want to put up with. But we knew we'd get over that fairly quickly, so the two of us didn't mind leading William back to our small camp. As soon as we returned, William bid us all goodnight and insisted he slept as far away from Iciris as he could possibly get. We didn't mind that at all, and let him do what he wanted. In fact, Iciris also insisted on the idea and slept about as far away as he could comfortably get. I felt like I was stuck in the middle of some feud. But either way, I was forced to just go on like nothing happened, and since William was aware of us; I was allowed to sleep well into the next morning.

William made breakfast for us that morning, giving us sweet milk and freshly cooked meat – a meal that Iciris refused to eat. It was strange waking up to some kindly adult in the morning, especially a person who could be seen as a father figure to a bunch of teenagers. He was calm and collected, and seemed to take whatever we had to give him with a smile. I couldn't help but think he was just humoring us. Iciris hated William, and it seemed Rii was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and actually liked him very much. As for me, I couldn't tell. He was suspicious to me, but not so much as to hate him, but I couldn't find myself just accepting him either. It was very confusing. Every time he did something nice, I reminded myself that it was just because he wanted our help. But I still appreciated it all the same. Maybe it was because growing up I didn't have a father of my own – and now this stranger was seemingly leading Iciris, Rii and I, and taking care of whatever need or curiosity we had. When I asked him about it, he simply said it was to "keep his little band of merry men, and women, in tip-top shape."

But as strange he may have seemed he did keep us going at a quick pace. He knew all sorts of things about the terrain, knowing that we'd more quickly travel in one area or along one path than another. He knew exactly what time it was just by looking at the sun in the sky, and could usually nail it to the second – or at least estimate. He knew about the going rates of goods, so if we passed a merchant he knew exactly how much something should have cost, how much of a discount the merchant got if they were an official member of the Merchant's Guild on that particular item, and whether or not we were receiving a bargain for whatever they were selling us. Rii and I couldn't help but ask him all sorts of questions about monsters, plant life, and other strange things that we saw only to have him give a full and long-winded spiel telling us exactly what it was, and what its name was derived from, and sometimes even its growth, living, or mating habits. William seemed to be an infinite well of knowledge that Rii and I felt compelled to draw from every chance we got. Iciris on the other hand couldn't have cared any less.

Most importantly, we discovered that he had planned on traveling to Alberta – a city Iciris had mentioned before. He was going to search Prontera and Izlude on the way, and if we hadn't found anything by then, he planned on taking a boat to Alberta from the Izlude Marina. He didn't have much of a reason for doing so other than the fact that he hadn't searched there in quite some time. Apparently he had been searching for years to find the Child of Prophecy, having started not long after he went missing at the age of maybe nine or ten years. Apparently the Child should have been entering the age of eighteen in a short time, suggesting that William had been out looking for this kid for maybe eight or nine years. I could only admire his determination, until he told me he was strictly ordered by the Schwarzvald Republic to find the Child, and not return until he did. It made sense though, since William was the Child's advisor.

It took us a couple of days to travel to Prontera. I didn't exactly miss that city and its crowded streets after the several days I'd been away from it, but it was nice after several days of travel to be in a city. We didn't stay long though. William asked us to go to all the notable places to ask if they had seen anything while he asked at the castle. He was the only one out of all of us permitted to enter the Palace and speak directly to the King, so he had Iciris ask at the Weapons Shop, Rii ask at the Tool Shop, and had me cover the Church in the north-eastern corner of the city. I didn't mind that, it's not like I wasn't welcome in the Church or anything. The Priests there were actually very nice and gave me all the information they could. All I had to do was mention that I was here on behalf of William of the Schwarzvald Republic, and they didn't hesitate. It seemed William was already fairly well known – which made me wonder how many times he'd checked that Church in the past eight or nine years. Unfortunately the Priests said they hadn't spotted the Child at all, and offered a kind donation of zeny towards William's efforts before sending me on my way.

Nobody had found a thing. William had said the King was just disappointed that he hadn't found the Child yet. Apparently both Rune-Midgards and the Schwarzvald Republic were both heavily involved in finding the Child of Prophecy, but were forced to keep things as confidential as possible, to keep the wrong people from finding out the right information. Apparently the dealers at the Tool and Weapons Shops didn't know a thing either, and hadn't seen anyone fitting the description of the Child of Prophecy. As soon as the news was reported, William too the donation I had received and used the money to buy more supplies and get enough fresh, good-quality bedrolls for Iciris, Rii and I, and then led us out of the city on towards Izlude. Knowing what came next was what kept me really excited.

It was a couple of hours to walk to Izlude, but the whole way I started thinking about the boat we were going to travel on. I remembered seeing a few different kinds of ships in the water the last time I was there and started to wonder what it was like to be on one. The sea was a big enough discovery for me, but after that initial discovery, I started thinking about the smaller things, like what was under the sea or what it liked to travel to places over the water. I asked William all kinds of questions about the Ocean as we neared Izlude, only to find out that the amount of creatures living in the Ocean was so diverse that William couldn't possibly explain them all to me. There was apparently millions, and he didn't want to be bothered getting into it all.

It was noon when we arrived at the Izlude Marina, and we stood before a large ship that was docked there. It was made entirely out of wood, sturdy wood, and had giant white sails. Many people dressed in white uniforms were working with ropes and pulleys to lift heavy crates onto the ship and to set up the sails. Other men were ushering other passengers onto the ship, most of them being Merchants on their way back to Alberta, while the rest were simply tourists from other places like Morroc. I could tell that those tourists were just as excited as I was. Hell, even Rii was excited… She was nearly jumping up and down, in fact.

"Oh, look at that!" She said, latching onto my arm. "It's so big!"

"That would be the S.S B. Shaw, if I'm not mistaken." William said, holding his hand up to block out the sun as he examined the ship all over. "It doubles as a passenger ship and cargo carrier. It's been sailing for a good twenty years now, I believe."

"I've never been on a ship before," I said, not able to hide my excitement any longer. "This is going to be really cool!"

"Yeah!" Rii said as she hugged my arm, simply crushing it in her excitement. "I can't wait, let's go get on it right now."

"But the ship doesn't leave for another three hours, Rii." William said as he looked at the girl in wonder of her excitement.

"I want to look at everything I can before we set sail." Rii responded.

Iciris sighed from behind the lot of us and said, "It's just a boat, and it's not that great."

"Maybe not for those of us who have been on a ship before," William stated in a matter-of-fact kind of way, "But Rii and Linkin have never seen a ship before. They have every reason to be excited."

"Whatever." Iciris said dismissingly.

The workers took our things from us and tagged them under William's name before they took it all away to a purposively special place where William could pick it up personally when he arrived at Alberta. We boarded then, completely unarmed and unburdened, and simply enjoyed our time on the boat. Rii went to every possible room she could to see every inch of the ship, its passengers, and its crew. She was very, very interested. I tagged along with her to make sure she was all right, and to find out a few things for myself, like what kinds of fish the captain had seen and things like that. But people were so busy that we didn't get too much out of them, and were usually asked to stay out of the way. For as long as we could, we looked at whatever we could… Unfortunately it barely took an hour, and for the other two we were just left to ourselves.

"One day, I want to have my very own ship." Rii said as she stood at the very front of the ship, which I learned was called the bow.

"Is that so?" I asked, standing next to her and looking out over the water as it sparkled in the afternoon sunlight, the salty air all around me smelling a little off to me.

"Yeah, it is." She giggled. "A boat that you and Iciris could work on, and we could take people all over the world."

"Seems like a pretty big dream to me," I said, raising a brow as I looked down at her with a grin. "I mean, getting Iciris to work for you?"

Rii laughed and said, "That would take a lot of work, wouldn't it?"

"I don't know if it'd be worth it." I laughed as well.

"Well then he doesn't have to." She said, looking up at me. "It could just be you and me?"

"Just us?" I asked.

"It wouldn't be a very big ship…" She reassured.

"Wouldn't it be kind of weird if it was just us…?" I asked.

Rii paused for a moment and kind of slowly down-cast her gaze away from mine, then turned back to look out over the water before saying quietly, "You're right… Never mind then."

I blinked, feeling the quiet tone in her voice as something bad, and immediately felt like I had to say something to fix it. In a hurry I said, "But uh… you know if you manage to get a boat, I'd probably work it with you."

"Really?" She asked, looking back up at me.

"Yeah, sure." I answered with a cheesy grin.

"I'd really like that." She smiled.

"Attention, attention!" A voice shouted over the entire ship, the loud, booming voice of a large sailor. "The ship is about to set sail! All passengers be aware that the ship is about to set sail!"

"Should we go find William and Iciris?" I asked.

"Yes, we should." Rii answered, turning with me as we left to find the other two.

The ship's sails turned then to catch the wind, which was blowing towards the bow, and the ship suddenly jerked forwards. Several sailors on the dock were pushing the boat away from them with long poles so that the boat didn't run into it, while other sailors on the ship were hastily coiling ropes that had once tied the ship to the port. Rii and I found Iciris, but William had gone down below for some private business that we weren't to be concerned about, and before we knew it, Izlude was just a small bundle of miniature buildings in the distance as the ship turned to sail several leagues out from the shore, but following the shoreline towards Alberta. Iciris showed us the intended course we were taking on his map, saying it would probably take us maybe a day or two by boat to get to Alberta. Rii and I were no less excited as the ship was moving, knowing that we were going to visit a brand new place we had never seen before.

… Little did anyone on that ship know, however, that it would be the last boat ride one of us would ever take.


End file.
